Robert J. Wieland
There are sincere people who are scared almost out of their wits by reading Hebrews 6:4-6. The passage says: “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”
It is indeed serious business! The Father was happy to hear the prayer of Jesus, to forgive us for crucifying His Son when we did it “not knowing what [we] do.” But if we do it again in full knowledge of what we are doing, that’s it; no more repentance. But many sincere people misread the text and bring darkness upon themselves. They realize that since they were originally converted they have backslid, and they assume that now God has turned against them. But the text doesn’t say that. It does not say that God will not forgive, again and again; it merely says that those who crucify Christ afresh are refusing to accept the gift of repentance. You can be forgiven for any sin that you repent of. That gift of repentance is yours for the taking.
The Greek text uses the present tense: the problem is a willful, ongoing process of re-crucifying Christ “afresh,” on and on, that is, refusing to repent. If you can read these words; if you see ever so tiny a ray of light shining somewhere, do not give up; tell your dear heavenly Father that you want to repent; ask Him to give you the precious gift; receive it; accept it. And rejoice in His pardoning love. Then go right to work to help somebody else with a word of Good News. Happiness is yours!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
message from heaven # 31
Robert J. Wieland
A man may love a woman truly, and she make a response to his love and tell him she also loves him truly; and then without provocation, she may turn on him and drop him cruelly:
That is a very painful experience for the man to have to go through. If, O man, you’ve never had to have it, thank the Lord. He never intended that you should have that painful sorrow.
Is it possible that the Lord Jesus Christ has been through that experience of suffering?
Only on a far greater plane than any of us have endured?
What we know for sure from the Bible is that Jesus will be married, for we read a prophecy that “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready”(Rev. 19:7, 8).
The clear meaning of the prophecy in context is that before this “marriage” takes place, it has been long delayed.
And the long delay was never the intent of the divine Bridegroom. “The disappointment of Christ has been beyond description,”—this we know.
And what we know also is that in the Song of Songs we have a clear prophecy of the divine Bridegroom’s suffering from the callous hardheartedness of the one “woman” whom He loves truly in all the world. It’s chapter 5:2-8 (incidentally, Jesus expressly commended the Song of Solomon as holy “Scripture” in John 7:37, 38).
The “man” (representing Christ) who truly loves the “woman” has just returned from a trip. He has come to her because He loves her, He wants to be with her intimately; but she disdains Him even though He knocks pleadingly on her “door,” telling her it’s raining outside where He is, please let Me in; but she rebuffs Him (read it; it’s there).
It’s one of the most painful pictures in the Bible, there in the Song of Songs.
But finally, she actually “repents”: she stops thinking of her own selfish comfort in her snug, warm bed on a rainy night and begins to think about Him out there in the cold and the wet, and gets up to care for Him.
The story of stories has to end with her repentance; otherwise “heaven” would be no more heaven, but become hell.
That’s how serious living is in this antitypical Day of Atonement during this Judgment hour (cf. Rev. 14:6, 7).
A man may love a woman truly, and she make a response to his love and tell him she also loves him truly; and then without provocation, she may turn on him and drop him cruelly:
That is a very painful experience for the man to have to go through. If, O man, you’ve never had to have it, thank the Lord. He never intended that you should have that painful sorrow.
Is it possible that the Lord Jesus Christ has been through that experience of suffering?
Only on a far greater plane than any of us have endured?
What we know for sure from the Bible is that Jesus will be married, for we read a prophecy that “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready”(Rev. 19:7, 8).
The clear meaning of the prophecy in context is that before this “marriage” takes place, it has been long delayed.
And the long delay was never the intent of the divine Bridegroom. “The disappointment of Christ has been beyond description,”—this we know.
And what we know also is that in the Song of Songs we have a clear prophecy of the divine Bridegroom’s suffering from the callous hardheartedness of the one “woman” whom He loves truly in all the world. It’s chapter 5:2-8 (incidentally, Jesus expressly commended the Song of Solomon as holy “Scripture” in John 7:37, 38).
The “man” (representing Christ) who truly loves the “woman” has just returned from a trip. He has come to her because He loves her, He wants to be with her intimately; but she disdains Him even though He knocks pleadingly on her “door,” telling her it’s raining outside where He is, please let Me in; but she rebuffs Him (read it; it’s there).
It’s one of the most painful pictures in the Bible, there in the Song of Songs.
But finally, she actually “repents”: she stops thinking of her own selfish comfort in her snug, warm bed on a rainy night and begins to think about Him out there in the cold and the wet, and gets up to care for Him.
The story of stories has to end with her repentance; otherwise “heaven” would be no more heaven, but become hell.
That’s how serious living is in this antitypical Day of Atonement during this Judgment hour (cf. Rev. 14:6, 7).
message from heaven # 30
Robert J. Wieland
How could the Samaritans in John 4:42 say that Jesus is “the Savior of the world” when today 2000 years later most of the world’s inhabitants do not recognize Him?
The Holy Spirit led them to say that because it is true!
The Father “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” for us; it was not an offer that required us to accept it first; Jesus is an out-and-out gift forever to this fallen human race.
All the giving has already been done; the fact that most of earth’s inhabitants do not accept the gift does not in any way lessen the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height ... of the love [agape] of Christ which passeth knowledge” in His giving of the gift (Eph. 3:18, 19).
What is the reason that most of earth’s inhabitants do not join the Samaritans in confessing that Jesus is their Savior? Most have never heard the gospel presented to them in a clear way; far more than we have yet seen, many will at last open their hearts and receive the good news when it comes to them clearly.
This we know from the prophecy in Revelation18:1-4 of another mighty angel who will “come down from heaven, having great power” when “the earth [will be] lightened with his glory.”
The second coming of Christ will be a decisive moment of judgment for the entire world. Christ so loves this lost planet that He will not permit that final moment of judgment to come until earth’s inhabitants have all had an ample opportunity to hear the message and respond; the Lord is not satisfied with a fear-induced, old covenant message even if it is being proclaimed worldwide.
Many people worldwide have come to understand that this year 2008 marks the 120th anniversary when “the Lord in His great mercy sent” a “most precious message” that was thoroughly New Covenant; glorious Good News that thrilled the hearts of some.
The differences between the New and the Old Covenant are clear-cut; we have detailed them on a little one-page sheet. If you would like to have a PDF file sent to you, please indicate accordingly; I believe you will be blessed (Robert J. Wieland, for Dial Daily Bread).
How could the Samaritans in John 4:42 say that Jesus is “the Savior of the world” when today 2000 years later most of the world’s inhabitants do not recognize Him?
The Holy Spirit led them to say that because it is true!
The Father “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” for us; it was not an offer that required us to accept it first; Jesus is an out-and-out gift forever to this fallen human race.
All the giving has already been done; the fact that most of earth’s inhabitants do not accept the gift does not in any way lessen the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height ... of the love [agape] of Christ which passeth knowledge” in His giving of the gift (Eph. 3:18, 19).
What is the reason that most of earth’s inhabitants do not join the Samaritans in confessing that Jesus is their Savior? Most have never heard the gospel presented to them in a clear way; far more than we have yet seen, many will at last open their hearts and receive the good news when it comes to them clearly.
This we know from the prophecy in Revelation18:1-4 of another mighty angel who will “come down from heaven, having great power” when “the earth [will be] lightened with his glory.”
The second coming of Christ will be a decisive moment of judgment for the entire world. Christ so loves this lost planet that He will not permit that final moment of judgment to come until earth’s inhabitants have all had an ample opportunity to hear the message and respond; the Lord is not satisfied with a fear-induced, old covenant message even if it is being proclaimed worldwide.
Many people worldwide have come to understand that this year 2008 marks the 120th anniversary when “the Lord in His great mercy sent” a “most precious message” that was thoroughly New Covenant; glorious Good News that thrilled the hearts of some.
The differences between the New and the Old Covenant are clear-cut; we have detailed them on a little one-page sheet. If you would like to have a PDF file sent to you, please indicate accordingly; I believe you will be blessed (Robert J. Wieland, for Dial Daily Bread).
message from heaven # 29
Robert J. Wieland
A powerful “Good News” text is 1 Timothy 4:10:
“We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.”
There are two ways that Christ is the “Saviour of all men”:
(1) He is literally and effectively “the Saviour” of those who “believe.”
(a) Their faith in Him is the kind that Galatians 5:6 describes as “faith which worketh by love.”
(b) That faith itself produces obedience to the holy law of God, because faith is a heart-appreciation of that love (agape) of God.
(c) Such faith melts a hard heart and reconciles the soul to God.
(d) We humans can’t duplicate what Christ did; but we can let our small, shriveled up hearts “enlarge” so we can appreciate what He has done for us (see Psalm 119:32).
(e) Then the love (agape) of Christ will “constrain” us “henceforth” to live only for Him.
(2) The second way that Christ is already “the Saviour of all men” is seen when we look at Romans 5:15-18:
(a) The “offence” our father Adam passed on down to us is the heritage of sin we all inherit from him.
(b) But the grace of Christ is much greater than all the sin the devil has tempted us to do.
(c) Christ has therefore reversed that curse that Adam brought upon us; he is the new Adam, our new father of the human race.
(d) What He did was to pay the penalty of our sin so that the Father could pronounce on the whole human race a “judicial verdict of acquittal” (Rom. 5:16-18, NEB).
(e) Therefore the Father has no chip on His shoulder against you or anyone; He makes “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).
(f) Note: this is a judicial verdict of acquittal; now we must take action: be reconciled to God and to His holy law and let Him save us from sin.
A powerful “Good News” text is 1 Timothy 4:10:
“We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.”
There are two ways that Christ is the “Saviour of all men”:
(1) He is literally and effectively “the Saviour” of those who “believe.”
(a) Their faith in Him is the kind that Galatians 5:6 describes as “faith which worketh by love.”
(b) That faith itself produces obedience to the holy law of God, because faith is a heart-appreciation of that love (agape) of God.
(c) Such faith melts a hard heart and reconciles the soul to God.
(d) We humans can’t duplicate what Christ did; but we can let our small, shriveled up hearts “enlarge” so we can appreciate what He has done for us (see Psalm 119:32).
(e) Then the love (agape) of Christ will “constrain” us “henceforth” to live only for Him.
(2) The second way that Christ is already “the Saviour of all men” is seen when we look at Romans 5:15-18:
(a) The “offence” our father Adam passed on down to us is the heritage of sin we all inherit from him.
(b) But the grace of Christ is much greater than all the sin the devil has tempted us to do.
(c) Christ has therefore reversed that curse that Adam brought upon us; he is the new Adam, our new father of the human race.
(d) What He did was to pay the penalty of our sin so that the Father could pronounce on the whole human race a “judicial verdict of acquittal” (Rom. 5:16-18, NEB).
(e) Therefore the Father has no chip on His shoulder against you or anyone; He makes “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).
(f) Note: this is a judicial verdict of acquittal; now we must take action: be reconciled to God and to His holy law and let Him save us from sin.
message from heaven # 28
Robert J. Wieland
The Bible says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ...” This must mean that He loves everybody in the world.
But it is surprising to discover that there are some people whom the Lord “abhors.”
We find them in Proverbs 22:14: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; whosoever is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.”
It’s possible therefore for the Lord to “abhor” someone’s character and yet at the same time He loves that person’s soul and wants him (her) to be saved eternally.
An example is King David. The Lord loved him but He abhorred his double sin of adultery and murder of Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. 11:2-27).
The Lord gave King David the gift of repentance (repentance is always a gift from the Lord; see Acts 5:31; don’t ever refuse it).
David’s repentance is explained in two psalms especially, #32 and #51. He realizes that the root of his sin is hatred of God that expresses itself in murder of God—in other words, in the crucifixion of the Son of God. He says, “Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight” (51:4).
He confesses his sin without making any excuse for it; he realizes that the root of all sin takes him back to Calvary. That’s where the world is judged.
It’s better for us to realize the root of sin today and confess it rather than wait until the final day of judgment, too late to confess the truth.
The Bible says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ...” This must mean that He loves everybody in the world.
But it is surprising to discover that there are some people whom the Lord “abhors.”
We find them in Proverbs 22:14: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; whosoever is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.”
It’s possible therefore for the Lord to “abhor” someone’s character and yet at the same time He loves that person’s soul and wants him (her) to be saved eternally.
An example is King David. The Lord loved him but He abhorred his double sin of adultery and murder of Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. 11:2-27).
The Lord gave King David the gift of repentance (repentance is always a gift from the Lord; see Acts 5:31; don’t ever refuse it).
David’s repentance is explained in two psalms especially, #32 and #51. He realizes that the root of his sin is hatred of God that expresses itself in murder of God—in other words, in the crucifixion of the Son of God. He says, “Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight” (51:4).
He confesses his sin without making any excuse for it; he realizes that the root of all sin takes him back to Calvary. That’s where the world is judged.
It’s better for us to realize the root of sin today and confess it rather than wait until the final day of judgment, too late to confess the truth.
message from heaven # 27
Robert J. Wieland
NEWSWEEK had a cover article entitled “Splitsville,” a study of divorce in modern America. It wasn’t a happy article.
“Once considered shocking and shameful, divorce has become a routine fact of American life in recent decades” it says. The divorce rate is more than double what it was in the 1950’s. The “statistics” are “depressing,” adds the article.
Two thousand years ago the Savior of the world declared that in the last days of earth’s history “the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12; if we had no other “sign of the times” to tell us that we are living in those last days, this sad news of divorce itself would be sufficient).
There must be a reason for this spiritual “disease” of lovelessness; shockingly, it can be found (of all places) in church!
Paganism has infiltrated and yes, has invaded, the Christian church. One example only can be cited here: the false doctrine of the natural immortality of the human soul. What this “Christianized” fallacy has accomplished is the virtual eclipse of the truth of the cross of Christ, the denial of what happened when Jesus died for the world.
If the human soul is by nature immortal, then Christ did not die on that cross! Thus in foisting this pagan philosophy into the popular church, Satan has succeeded to foment his rebellion against the true Christ, the son of God, the Savior of the world.
The death that Jesus died on that cross was not the “sleep” that we commonly describe as “death.” Says Scripture, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). That “taste” was not simple “sleep;” it was the real thing—the awful “second death.” Christ “poured out His soul unto [that] death” (Isa. 53:12).
There is the truth of “love,” the agape that Paul says is God (1 John 4:8). Take that truth away, and we are left with “the love of many wax[ing] cold.”
NEWSWEEK had a cover article entitled “Splitsville,” a study of divorce in modern America. It wasn’t a happy article.
“Once considered shocking and shameful, divorce has become a routine fact of American life in recent decades” it says. The divorce rate is more than double what it was in the 1950’s. The “statistics” are “depressing,” adds the article.
Two thousand years ago the Savior of the world declared that in the last days of earth’s history “the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12; if we had no other “sign of the times” to tell us that we are living in those last days, this sad news of divorce itself would be sufficient).
There must be a reason for this spiritual “disease” of lovelessness; shockingly, it can be found (of all places) in church!
Paganism has infiltrated and yes, has invaded, the Christian church. One example only can be cited here: the false doctrine of the natural immortality of the human soul. What this “Christianized” fallacy has accomplished is the virtual eclipse of the truth of the cross of Christ, the denial of what happened when Jesus died for the world.
If the human soul is by nature immortal, then Christ did not die on that cross! Thus in foisting this pagan philosophy into the popular church, Satan has succeeded to foment his rebellion against the true Christ, the son of God, the Savior of the world.
The death that Jesus died on that cross was not the “sleep” that we commonly describe as “death.” Says Scripture, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). That “taste” was not simple “sleep;” it was the real thing—the awful “second death.” Christ “poured out His soul unto [that] death” (Isa. 53:12).
There is the truth of “love,” the agape that Paul says is God (1 John 4:8). Take that truth away, and we are left with “the love of many wax[ing] cold.”
message from heaven # 26
Robert J. Wieland
Has the Lord in His great mercy saved you from falling into the deep pit of adultery?
If you can say yes, you can sing and praise the Lord for now and forever.
Adultery brings a great burden of sorrow on the Lord Himself, to say nothing of the pain it brings on us and all whom we are connected with. The Lord in no uncertain language says He “hates” it:
“The Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou has dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. ... Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away... Take heed ... , that ye deal not treacherously” (Mal. 2:14-16).
“But doesn’t the Lord forgive?”
Ah yes, but the New Testament word for “forgive” means to “take away the sin,” so that now the sin is forever hated.
It’s impossible for anyone to break the seventh of the ten commandments until he has first broken the first six; therefore, it’s impossible to repent of breaking the seventh commandment until one goes back to the beginning and genuinely, maybe painfully, repents of breaking those six. This genuine, blessed work that is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:31) means a complete overhaul of one’s character, like you overhaul the broken engine of a diesel truck.
But the Lord is merciful; He is also thorough; He cleanses the heart. Titus 2:11-14 is full of good news: (a) “the grace of God” has brought salvation to “all men.” (b) That “grace” “teaches” us to say “No!” to “worldly lusts”; it’s not that we help save ourselves, but our firm choice to say “No!” to them is cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
(c) The motivating power of this repentance is believing, appreciating the truth that Christ “gave Himself for us” (vs. 14); the “gift” of Himself was total—He “poured out His soul unto death,” even the second death, for us (Isa. 53:12).
Has the Lord in His great mercy saved you from falling into the deep pit of adultery?
If you can say yes, you can sing and praise the Lord for now and forever.
Adultery brings a great burden of sorrow on the Lord Himself, to say nothing of the pain it brings on us and all whom we are connected with. The Lord in no uncertain language says He “hates” it:
“The Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou has dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. ... Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away... Take heed ... , that ye deal not treacherously” (Mal. 2:14-16).
“But doesn’t the Lord forgive?”
Ah yes, but the New Testament word for “forgive” means to “take away the sin,” so that now the sin is forever hated.
It’s impossible for anyone to break the seventh of the ten commandments until he has first broken the first six; therefore, it’s impossible to repent of breaking the seventh commandment until one goes back to the beginning and genuinely, maybe painfully, repents of breaking those six. This genuine, blessed work that is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:31) means a complete overhaul of one’s character, like you overhaul the broken engine of a diesel truck.
But the Lord is merciful; He is also thorough; He cleanses the heart. Titus 2:11-14 is full of good news: (a) “the grace of God” has brought salvation to “all men.” (b) That “grace” “teaches” us to say “No!” to “worldly lusts”; it’s not that we help save ourselves, but our firm choice to say “No!” to them is cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
(c) The motivating power of this repentance is believing, appreciating the truth that Christ “gave Himself for us” (vs. 14); the “gift” of Himself was total—He “poured out His soul unto death,” even the second death, for us (Isa. 53:12).
message from heaven # 25
Robert J. Wieland
It so happens that I have neither a cat nor a dog just now, so the quail have made my back yard their home. They feel safe. It’s interesting to watch the submission of the little quail to their parents’ leading. The Lord Jesus tells us that the infinite Father in heaven cares about even them: “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [caring]. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many” little birds (Matt. 10:29-31).
Did the infinite Father in heaven care about the Lord Jesus? He said plaintively, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). Did “we” care?
It’s a terrible feeling to be a grown man and have not even a square inch you can call your own “nest,” nor the means to provide one or rent one. You can feel so utterly alone.
So did Jesus, when He was among us. Yet He was 100 per cent human; He felt His aloneness—not physically so much as the constant realization that His closest friends, the disciples, were spiritually “strangers.” I have often felt so ashamed for them (and at the same time felt their shame is mine for I am as corporately guilty as they were)—not one of them came up to the cross where He was hanging in agony, and gave Him even a drink of water! Nor was even one of them able to share the burden on His heart.
We cannot say that the Father really forsook Him when He screamed in agony, “My Father, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) but the Father was forced to appear to forsake Him and to leave Him to feel the utter aloneness and condemnation that sin has brought on the human race.
The “condemnation” we have all received from our fallen “father Adam” has always been only judicial. No human in 6000+ years has ever endured it actually—except Jesus only.
On your knees, thank Him that He has not left you alone; let your worldly, egocentric heart be warmed by the realization of His “much more abounding grace” that saves you from eternal aloneness, and gives you a place in His eternal kingdom of sunlit fellowship (cf. Rom. 5:20).
It so happens that I have neither a cat nor a dog just now, so the quail have made my back yard their home. They feel safe. It’s interesting to watch the submission of the little quail to their parents’ leading. The Lord Jesus tells us that the infinite Father in heaven cares about even them: “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [caring]. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many” little birds (Matt. 10:29-31).
Did the infinite Father in heaven care about the Lord Jesus? He said plaintively, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). Did “we” care?
It’s a terrible feeling to be a grown man and have not even a square inch you can call your own “nest,” nor the means to provide one or rent one. You can feel so utterly alone.
So did Jesus, when He was among us. Yet He was 100 per cent human; He felt His aloneness—not physically so much as the constant realization that His closest friends, the disciples, were spiritually “strangers.” I have often felt so ashamed for them (and at the same time felt their shame is mine for I am as corporately guilty as they were)—not one of them came up to the cross where He was hanging in agony, and gave Him even a drink of water! Nor was even one of them able to share the burden on His heart.
We cannot say that the Father really forsook Him when He screamed in agony, “My Father, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) but the Father was forced to appear to forsake Him and to leave Him to feel the utter aloneness and condemnation that sin has brought on the human race.
The “condemnation” we have all received from our fallen “father Adam” has always been only judicial. No human in 6000+ years has ever endured it actually—except Jesus only.
On your knees, thank Him that He has not left you alone; let your worldly, egocentric heart be warmed by the realization of His “much more abounding grace” that saves you from eternal aloneness, and gives you a place in His eternal kingdom of sunlit fellowship (cf. Rom. 5:20).
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
message from heaven # 24
Robert J. Wieland
It sounds outlandish, but it’s true: the marriage of Jesus is a cardinal Bible doctrine!
The Book of Revelation devotes an entire chapter to it, a chapter which has often been neglected, not because Bible students are resistant and unbelieving but simply because they don’t understand.
The Lord, the Father, who gave us the Book of Revelation (note, Rev. 1:1-3; the Father is the first link), would not waste the precious space that a whole chapter in Revelation occupies—chapter 19. The chapter is there because the “marriage of the Lamb” is vitally necessary to the understanding of God’s people in these last days.
It’s not right that all heaven is abuzz with the partying excitement that prevails there now, in anticipation, according to Revelation 19, and we who are God’s people here on earth plod along in darkness and ignorance.
Is it possible that the Lord Jesus Christ is in love with a “woman”? The answer is a resounding yes, but “she” is not an ordinary woman; she is “the church.” God’s people are guests at the wedding, says a profoundly serious writer in The Great Controversy; therefore they cannot also be the bride, the author says.
But elsewhere the same author over and over declares that “the church” is the Bride of Christ.
Indeed, God’s people as individuals will be “guests” at the wedding; but as a corporate body they are the Bride. The Son of God has become one of us; He is the divine Son of God, but He is also the Son of man; and as a human “man” He naturally wants to be married to the object of His conjugal love.
Heaven is abuzz with the excitement, says Revelation 19, over and over. People around the world are beginning to think of Revelation 19; and they are beginning to think also of the message of the long neglected Song of Solomon, especially chapter 5 (Jesus declared that that book is a part of the divinely inspired “Scripture,” in John 7:37, 38 [SS 4:15]). Maybe, the Lord willing, more tomorrow.
It sounds outlandish, but it’s true: the marriage of Jesus is a cardinal Bible doctrine!
The Book of Revelation devotes an entire chapter to it, a chapter which has often been neglected, not because Bible students are resistant and unbelieving but simply because they don’t understand.
The Lord, the Father, who gave us the Book of Revelation (note, Rev. 1:1-3; the Father is the first link), would not waste the precious space that a whole chapter in Revelation occupies—chapter 19. The chapter is there because the “marriage of the Lamb” is vitally necessary to the understanding of God’s people in these last days.
It’s not right that all heaven is abuzz with the partying excitement that prevails there now, in anticipation, according to Revelation 19, and we who are God’s people here on earth plod along in darkness and ignorance.
Is it possible that the Lord Jesus Christ is in love with a “woman”? The answer is a resounding yes, but “she” is not an ordinary woman; she is “the church.” God’s people are guests at the wedding, says a profoundly serious writer in The Great Controversy; therefore they cannot also be the bride, the author says.
But elsewhere the same author over and over declares that “the church” is the Bride of Christ.
Indeed, God’s people as individuals will be “guests” at the wedding; but as a corporate body they are the Bride. The Son of God has become one of us; He is the divine Son of God, but He is also the Son of man; and as a human “man” He naturally wants to be married to the object of His conjugal love.
Heaven is abuzz with the excitement, says Revelation 19, over and over. People around the world are beginning to think of Revelation 19; and they are beginning to think also of the message of the long neglected Song of Solomon, especially chapter 5 (Jesus declared that that book is a part of the divinely inspired “Scripture,” in John 7:37, 38 [SS 4:15]). Maybe, the Lord willing, more tomorrow.
message from heaven # 23
Robert J. Wieland
It’s a joy to pray to “our Father which art in heaven”:
(a) The tender memories enter in of what a father should be to a child.
(b) Even if your earthly father was not what he should be, the Holy Spirit works overtime to bring that emotional sense.
(c) You know that the heavenly Father is infinite; which means, his phone is never off the hook.
(d) He has time to listen to you, patiently.
(e) You don’t need to think you must share Him with others; He is all yours, forever!
(f) He sees if a little sparrow falls on the forest floor (Matt. 10:29); therefore think how much more He cares about YOU, and the problems you are having.
(g) Your heavenly Father is especially described as One who “seeth in secret (Matt. 6:4).
(h) This is emphasized by the command to “enter into thy closet, and ... shut thy door”(vs. 6). Jesus couldn’t make His assurance of confidentiality plainer!
(i) The promise that the One who “seeth in secret” will “reward thee openly” must mean that He acts on every sincere prayer you offer to Him “in secret.”
(j) You and He will have secrets to share between you and Him! He invites your intimacy.
(k) You will hold your head high forever after; no great social leader from the world’s highest families will have an edge on you!
(l) Adopted into the “family of God,” you already live in what is in reality a “mansion.”
(m) The Father “has made us accepted in the Beloved,” and has adopted us (Eph. 1:5, 6).
(n) You are actually living with your heavenly Father; He resides with you,—yes! Now remember that: your housemates may not cherish your faith, but you are living “in secret” with your heavenly Father. You and He have a secret life.
(o) “Abide in Me, and I in you,” says Jesus in John 15:4. The Father and the Son are One. One’s promise is the same as the other’s.
(p) Paul says that the Father “was [is] in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). This is the “in secret” job that you share with your Father; from now on you and He work together “in secret.”
(q) You feel like you have failed? Talk all about it “in secret” with your heavenly Father; oh joy! He hears you and He saves you! He will “in no wise cast you out” (see John 6:37).
It’s a joy to pray to “our Father which art in heaven”:
(a) The tender memories enter in of what a father should be to a child.
(b) Even if your earthly father was not what he should be, the Holy Spirit works overtime to bring that emotional sense.
(c) You know that the heavenly Father is infinite; which means, his phone is never off the hook.
(d) He has time to listen to you, patiently.
(e) You don’t need to think you must share Him with others; He is all yours, forever!
(f) He sees if a little sparrow falls on the forest floor (Matt. 10:29); therefore think how much more He cares about YOU, and the problems you are having.
(g) Your heavenly Father is especially described as One who “seeth in secret (Matt. 6:4).
(h) This is emphasized by the command to “enter into thy closet, and ... shut thy door”(vs. 6). Jesus couldn’t make His assurance of confidentiality plainer!
(i) The promise that the One who “seeth in secret” will “reward thee openly” must mean that He acts on every sincere prayer you offer to Him “in secret.”
(j) You and He will have secrets to share between you and Him! He invites your intimacy.
(k) You will hold your head high forever after; no great social leader from the world’s highest families will have an edge on you!
(l) Adopted into the “family of God,” you already live in what is in reality a “mansion.”
(m) The Father “has made us accepted in the Beloved,” and has adopted us (Eph. 1:5, 6).
(n) You are actually living with your heavenly Father; He resides with you,—yes! Now remember that: your housemates may not cherish your faith, but you are living “in secret” with your heavenly Father. You and He have a secret life.
(o) “Abide in Me, and I in you,” says Jesus in John 15:4. The Father and the Son are One. One’s promise is the same as the other’s.
(p) Paul says that the Father “was [is] in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). This is the “in secret” job that you share with your Father; from now on you and He work together “in secret.”
(q) You feel like you have failed? Talk all about it “in secret” with your heavenly Father; oh joy! He hears you and He saves you! He will “in no wise cast you out” (see John 6:37).
message from heaven # 22
Robert J. Wieland
The word “stress” appears nowhere in the Bible. Does that mean that God never foresaw the No. 1 problem that modern human beings have to contend with? No, for the idea of stress permeates the Bible and it is full of remedies for it.
#1 is the invitation of the Son of God who says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Being “heavy-laden” is the precise idea of stress as we know it! But how do we “come” to Him? The very problem itself of our weariness and unending pressures so distracts us that we are so jittery that we cannot “come” to Him—so we feel. And the pressure becomes so bad that we crack.
Now the Bible suggests a way of relief:
(a) We have to eat or we would die of starvation. But we don’t usually have to eat as much as we do; skip a meal and devote that time to “coming to Him.” Yes, that does make sense: we are invited to “fast and pray” when we face difficult problems. Does it take you 30 minutes to eat? Devote 30 minutes on your knees and talk to the Divine Psychiatrist, the Savior whose full-time job is doing what He promised—giving you “rest.”
(b) You have to take some time to sleep; turn off your computer and TV and go to bed early; then get up in the morning early and devote another 30 minutes to “coming to Him.” Psalm 27:8 has a precious insight into what happens behind the scenes: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to you, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’” This dialogue between the Lord and you is going on; it’s for real. He is knocking on your door.
Remedy # 2 is the holy Sabbath day. For 6000 years the Lord has known that six days of stress is all that any human can endure at any time; the seventh day is permeated with His presence; in the beginning He made that day “holy.” You don’t make the Sabbath holy, He did; your job is only to “keep it holy.” And the rest from stress that is in the holy Sabbath day is diffused throughout the busy week, because for the “six working days” (Ezek. 46:1) we “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). That very remembrance itself brings a renewed promise of “rest” that soothes our frayed nerves throughout the week.
The word “stress” appears nowhere in the Bible. Does that mean that God never foresaw the No. 1 problem that modern human beings have to contend with? No, for the idea of stress permeates the Bible and it is full of remedies for it.
#1 is the invitation of the Son of God who says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Being “heavy-laden” is the precise idea of stress as we know it! But how do we “come” to Him? The very problem itself of our weariness and unending pressures so distracts us that we are so jittery that we cannot “come” to Him—so we feel. And the pressure becomes so bad that we crack.
Now the Bible suggests a way of relief:
(a) We have to eat or we would die of starvation. But we don’t usually have to eat as much as we do; skip a meal and devote that time to “coming to Him.” Yes, that does make sense: we are invited to “fast and pray” when we face difficult problems. Does it take you 30 minutes to eat? Devote 30 minutes on your knees and talk to the Divine Psychiatrist, the Savior whose full-time job is doing what He promised—giving you “rest.”
(b) You have to take some time to sleep; turn off your computer and TV and go to bed early; then get up in the morning early and devote another 30 minutes to “coming to Him.” Psalm 27:8 has a precious insight into what happens behind the scenes: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to you, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’” This dialogue between the Lord and you is going on; it’s for real. He is knocking on your door.
Remedy # 2 is the holy Sabbath day. For 6000 years the Lord has known that six days of stress is all that any human can endure at any time; the seventh day is permeated with His presence; in the beginning He made that day “holy.” You don’t make the Sabbath holy, He did; your job is only to “keep it holy.” And the rest from stress that is in the holy Sabbath day is diffused throughout the busy week, because for the “six working days” (Ezek. 46:1) we “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). That very remembrance itself brings a renewed promise of “rest” that soothes our frayed nerves throughout the week.
message from heaven # 21
Robert J. Wieland
The News media are telling alarming tales of the depravity of teenagers today, exposing themselves shamelessly before each other, using their cell phones. Their immodest abandon was undreamed of even one generation ago. They are throwing themselves away; it’s not only foolish; it is a form of social suicide.
The Lord Jesus long ago spoke of this dive into depravity when He describes our time today, when He said, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love [agape] of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12).
It is a surprise to many to realize that the word “agape” in the Bible means not only a high spiritual love theologically; it also means sexual love. This becomes evident when we read Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives,” where the verb is the verb for agape.
Agape includes conjugal, married love!
Love between the sexes is a delightful gift of the Lord. The poet who said it is “the sweet mystery of life” knew better than he wrote. When the Lord told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply,” what that command meant was that through attraction of the sexes for each other and their built-in desire to be one, the earth would be filled with people.
But it’s not a mere mechanism for producing births; it is the holy exercise of God-given love.
Now today that holy love is being trampled in the mud.
What can anybody do to help?
The sober, truthful answer is: proclaim “Christ and Him crucified.”
This current dive into depravity could never have happened if the teens involved had heard the cross of Christ proclaimed as living truth in their churches. When Paul came to ancient Corinth, he knew he was facing the demanding test of his ministry: how could he capture the heart attention of those depraved pagan people in that great Mediterranean city with its pagan religious prostitution in the great temple of Diana?
He tells us: “When I came to you ... I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Did the people get tired hearing sermons all the time about the cross? No; they found life and true conversion; they couldn’t get enough.
That is equally true today! This writer was privileged to serve as pastor/evangelist in one of California’s biggest cities; the message of the cross brings people in from off the streets!
The News media are telling alarming tales of the depravity of teenagers today, exposing themselves shamelessly before each other, using their cell phones. Their immodest abandon was undreamed of even one generation ago. They are throwing themselves away; it’s not only foolish; it is a form of social suicide.
The Lord Jesus long ago spoke of this dive into depravity when He describes our time today, when He said, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love [agape] of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12).
It is a surprise to many to realize that the word “agape” in the Bible means not only a high spiritual love theologically; it also means sexual love. This becomes evident when we read Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives,” where the verb is the verb for agape.
Agape includes conjugal, married love!
Love between the sexes is a delightful gift of the Lord. The poet who said it is “the sweet mystery of life” knew better than he wrote. When the Lord told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply,” what that command meant was that through attraction of the sexes for each other and their built-in desire to be one, the earth would be filled with people.
But it’s not a mere mechanism for producing births; it is the holy exercise of God-given love.
Now today that holy love is being trampled in the mud.
What can anybody do to help?
The sober, truthful answer is: proclaim “Christ and Him crucified.”
This current dive into depravity could never have happened if the teens involved had heard the cross of Christ proclaimed as living truth in their churches. When Paul came to ancient Corinth, he knew he was facing the demanding test of his ministry: how could he capture the heart attention of those depraved pagan people in that great Mediterranean city with its pagan religious prostitution in the great temple of Diana?
He tells us: “When I came to you ... I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Did the people get tired hearing sermons all the time about the cross? No; they found life and true conversion; they couldn’t get enough.
That is equally true today! This writer was privileged to serve as pastor/evangelist in one of California’s biggest cities; the message of the cross brings people in from off the streets!
message from heaven # 20
Robert J. Wieland
Does the Lord need humans to do things that He wants done “in earth as it is in heaven”?
When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we are confessing that His will should be done in earth as it is in heaven”; but who is to accomplish that?
Angels are His “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ...” (Heb. 1:14). But their ministry is not to do things that those “heirs of salvation” should do themselves.
The Father’s will never “be done in earth as it is in heaven” until His own people get busy and do it.
A prayer that will always be answered is this, “Father in heaven, what do You want me to do?”
It may be a phone call that you have shied away from; to make the call will require laying self aside!
It may be a letter that you have been impressed that it is your duty to write; that too will require a denial of self.
It may be a personal visit likewise that you need to make.
Welcome to the joyous thrill that is yours when you know you have done what the heavenly Father wants you to do. That means you have become a fellow-laborer with Him!
Can you think of a higher honor you could have but that—as the holy angels all step aside in deep respect to you as you DO what the Father has appointed you to do?
Does the Lord need humans to do things that He wants done “in earth as it is in heaven”?
When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we are confessing that His will should be done in earth as it is in heaven”; but who is to accomplish that?
Angels are His “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ...” (Heb. 1:14). But their ministry is not to do things that those “heirs of salvation” should do themselves.
The Father’s will never “be done in earth as it is in heaven” until His own people get busy and do it.
A prayer that will always be answered is this, “Father in heaven, what do You want me to do?”
It may be a phone call that you have shied away from; to make the call will require laying self aside!
It may be a letter that you have been impressed that it is your duty to write; that too will require a denial of self.
It may be a personal visit likewise that you need to make.
Welcome to the joyous thrill that is yours when you know you have done what the heavenly Father wants you to do. That means you have become a fellow-laborer with Him!
Can you think of a higher honor you could have but that—as the holy angels all step aside in deep respect to you as you DO what the Father has appointed you to do?
message from heaven # 19
Robert J. Wieland
It stuns one to think of the consequences of this question: Does the Lord need us to do things for Him which He cannot do for Himself?
We think of Him as omnipotent—the word means ability to do anything and everything.
But even though that is the meaning of the word “omnipotent,” it’s obvious that there are some things the Lord cannot do, much as He may try: He cannot change the heart of a sinner who refuses His much more abounding grace.
In the beginning when “there was war in heaven [when] Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; nether was their place found any more in heaven” (Rev. 12:7, 8), the “omnipotent” Lord could not change the rebellious hearts of Lucifer and his angels. Neither can He do so today.
It follows that people who choose to obey the fallen Lucifer and his fallen angels also have rebellious hearts that God cannot force; no angel can preach to those people as effectively as can a fallen sinner who has repented and is “reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10).
Such a reconciled sinner can do things for the Lord that He cannot do for Himself. For example:
A prominent Ethiopian was riding in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah but couldn’t understand it. The Lord loved him and wanted to help him; so what did the Lord do? He impressed His servant Philip, “Go near and join thyself to this chariot” (in other words, hitchhike; Acts 8:27-30). Philip obeyed.
It stuns one to realize the truth: the Holy Spirit needed Philip! What does He need you and me to do today?
It stuns one to think of the consequences of this question: Does the Lord need us to do things for Him which He cannot do for Himself?
We think of Him as omnipotent—the word means ability to do anything and everything.
But even though that is the meaning of the word “omnipotent,” it’s obvious that there are some things the Lord cannot do, much as He may try: He cannot change the heart of a sinner who refuses His much more abounding grace.
In the beginning when “there was war in heaven [when] Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; nether was their place found any more in heaven” (Rev. 12:7, 8), the “omnipotent” Lord could not change the rebellious hearts of Lucifer and his angels. Neither can He do so today.
It follows that people who choose to obey the fallen Lucifer and his fallen angels also have rebellious hearts that God cannot force; no angel can preach to those people as effectively as can a fallen sinner who has repented and is “reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10).
Such a reconciled sinner can do things for the Lord that He cannot do for Himself. For example:
A prominent Ethiopian was riding in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah but couldn’t understand it. The Lord loved him and wanted to help him; so what did the Lord do? He impressed His servant Philip, “Go near and join thyself to this chariot” (in other words, hitchhike; Acts 8:27-30). Philip obeyed.
It stuns one to realize the truth: the Holy Spirit needed Philip! What does He need you and me to do today?
message from heaven # 18
Robert J. Wieland
King Hezekiah was one of the best men who ever lived. He did everything just right. The Bible says nothing evil about him.
In his days, he led the nation to celebrate the finest Passover they had observed in centuries.
There is not the slightest whiff of evidence that he will not find a place in the Lord’s eternal kingdom, when the resurrection occurs at the second coming of Christ (“the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first,” 1 Thess. 4:16).
But when he is resurrected, he will have to learn about the history that followed him. Revelation 21:4 does not say that there will be no tears on the resurrection morning—there won’t be any tears in the earth made new.
When Hezekiah was only 49, the Lord sent him a message by the prophet Isaiah that he should “set [his] his house in order,” for the time had come in the Lord’s infinite wisdom that he should die (2 Kings 20:1).
But this time the good king rebelled against the Lord’s will, set his face against the wall to cry; he told the Lord that it’s not fair—he’s been a good king, etc. So the Lord added 15 years for him to live.
During that added space of grace, he sired a son, Manasseh, who became the worst king the nation had ever had. Hezekiah would have been wise when the Lord said, “The time has come for you to die,” if he had said, “Amen, Lord! I trust You. Thy will be done”(see the story in Isaiah 38:1-3).
The word of the Lord, even if it comes with disappointment, is always the word of love that the Lord has for us. May He give us of His much more abounding grace to believe it.
If, for that grace, He extends our life, may we use it for His glory. Then we will be happy in the resurrection morning.
King Hezekiah was one of the best men who ever lived. He did everything just right. The Bible says nothing evil about him.
In his days, he led the nation to celebrate the finest Passover they had observed in centuries.
There is not the slightest whiff of evidence that he will not find a place in the Lord’s eternal kingdom, when the resurrection occurs at the second coming of Christ (“the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first,” 1 Thess. 4:16).
But when he is resurrected, he will have to learn about the history that followed him. Revelation 21:4 does not say that there will be no tears on the resurrection morning—there won’t be any tears in the earth made new.
When Hezekiah was only 49, the Lord sent him a message by the prophet Isaiah that he should “set [his] his house in order,” for the time had come in the Lord’s infinite wisdom that he should die (2 Kings 20:1).
But this time the good king rebelled against the Lord’s will, set his face against the wall to cry; he told the Lord that it’s not fair—he’s been a good king, etc. So the Lord added 15 years for him to live.
During that added space of grace, he sired a son, Manasseh, who became the worst king the nation had ever had. Hezekiah would have been wise when the Lord said, “The time has come for you to die,” if he had said, “Amen, Lord! I trust You. Thy will be done”(see the story in Isaiah 38:1-3).
The word of the Lord, even if it comes with disappointment, is always the word of love that the Lord has for us. May He give us of His much more abounding grace to believe it.
If, for that grace, He extends our life, may we use it for His glory. Then we will be happy in the resurrection morning.
Monday, July 21, 2008
message from heaven # 17
Robert J. Wieland
There is absolutely nothing easier that a human being can do than to look at something. Eternal salvation requires that one thing—to LOOK. There it is, plainly taught in the Bible—”LOOK unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). The Hebrew word means to turn the face toward. Perhaps you have noticed how often the word BEHOLD occurs in the Bible—hundreds of times. When the poisonous snake would bite the Israelite, all he had to do was to BEHOLD the snake Moses lifted up on a pole. John says, “BEHOLD, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us” (1 John 3:1). It’s as though God keeps saying to us, “See, look, watch what I’ve done!”
Christianity is a religion of look and live, behold and be saved. But is it possible that people won’t look, see, watch, or consider? Is God doing something wonderful that won’t get the world’s attention? Wouldn’t it be terrible if the Son of God is sacrificed on a cross and most people never even bother to LOOK? But let’s remember—God knows how to get the world’s attention!
(1) Paul says, “Have they [the world’s population] not heard? Yes, verily ... “ (Rom. 10:18). And John says that Christ is “the Light that lighteth every person who comes into the world” (1:9).
(2) In these last days a special message, never previously so clear, is to lighten the earth with glory, not just a candle flickering in an obscure way (Rev. 18:1-4). Revelation shows how that message will be an unveiling of Christ as the Lamb of God—the crucified Son of God, whose cross is the revelation of the agape of the Father that we are to BEHOLD. That message will arrest the attention of the world.
(3) What about those who refuse now to LOOK and live? In the final judgment all will see that cross and each individual will see the part he had in crucifying the Lord of glory. And that final looking will be torture to the lost—more awful than any physical pain of fire could be. Why not LOOK now?
There is absolutely nothing easier that a human being can do than to look at something. Eternal salvation requires that one thing—to LOOK. There it is, plainly taught in the Bible—”LOOK unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). The Hebrew word means to turn the face toward. Perhaps you have noticed how often the word BEHOLD occurs in the Bible—hundreds of times. When the poisonous snake would bite the Israelite, all he had to do was to BEHOLD the snake Moses lifted up on a pole. John says, “BEHOLD, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us” (1 John 3:1). It’s as though God keeps saying to us, “See, look, watch what I’ve done!”
Christianity is a religion of look and live, behold and be saved. But is it possible that people won’t look, see, watch, or consider? Is God doing something wonderful that won’t get the world’s attention? Wouldn’t it be terrible if the Son of God is sacrificed on a cross and most people never even bother to LOOK? But let’s remember—God knows how to get the world’s attention!
(1) Paul says, “Have they [the world’s population] not heard? Yes, verily ... “ (Rom. 10:18). And John says that Christ is “the Light that lighteth every person who comes into the world” (1:9).
(2) In these last days a special message, never previously so clear, is to lighten the earth with glory, not just a candle flickering in an obscure way (Rev. 18:1-4). Revelation shows how that message will be an unveiling of Christ as the Lamb of God—the crucified Son of God, whose cross is the revelation of the agape of the Father that we are to BEHOLD. That message will arrest the attention of the world.
(3) What about those who refuse now to LOOK and live? In the final judgment all will see that cross and each individual will see the part he had in crucifying the Lord of glory. And that final looking will be torture to the lost—more awful than any physical pain of fire could be. Why not LOOK now?
Sunday, July 20, 2008
message from heaven # 16
Robert J. Wieland
At any given moment, 24/7, if you should ask the Lord, "What is the news?" His reply would be that He has only GOOD news for you.Even if you had just had a doctor tell you that you have terminal cancer, and you were on a death-bed, the Lord would have only GOOD news for you. Even in such an extremity, He would assure you that "He will be [your] guide, even unto death" (Psalm 48:15).Looking forward to the "first resurrection" is immense GOOD news, for Revelation 20:6 says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." There is a special blessing (the word means ultra-happiness) on those who today die "in the Lord." We read it in Revelation 14:13, John says, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the [Holy] Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."There might be someone reading these words today who has nothing to look forward to from this moment on, except that "resurrection." If so, be immensely thankful to the Lord for everything! He has only GOOD news for you—those "who die in the Lord from henceforth" are in a special class.Jesus describes them in Luke 20:35: "They ... shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, ... neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."All the heavenly host of unfallen angels and beings who kneel before the throne of the Lord rejoice together with them in this "blessed hope" (cf. Titus 2:13). From this moment on, there is nothing but GOOD news for you, if you will believe these promises of the Lord Jesus whop died for you on His cross—who died your "second death."
At any given moment, 24/7, if you should ask the Lord, "What is the news?" His reply would be that He has only GOOD news for you.Even if you had just had a doctor tell you that you have terminal cancer, and you were on a death-bed, the Lord would have only GOOD news for you. Even in such an extremity, He would assure you that "He will be [your] guide, even unto death" (Psalm 48:15).Looking forward to the "first resurrection" is immense GOOD news, for Revelation 20:6 says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." There is a special blessing (the word means ultra-happiness) on those who today die "in the Lord." We read it in Revelation 14:13, John says, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the [Holy] Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."There might be someone reading these words today who has nothing to look forward to from this moment on, except that "resurrection." If so, be immensely thankful to the Lord for everything! He has only GOOD news for you—those "who die in the Lord from henceforth" are in a special class.Jesus describes them in Luke 20:35: "They ... shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, ... neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."All the heavenly host of unfallen angels and beings who kneel before the throne of the Lord rejoice together with them in this "blessed hope" (cf. Titus 2:13). From this moment on, there is nothing but GOOD news for you, if you will believe these promises of the Lord Jesus whop died for you on His cross—who died your "second death."
message from heaven # 15
Robert J. Wieland
Was it the Lord’s intention that His people should embrace the Old Covenant?
Paul says that the old covenant “genders to bondage” (Gal. 4:24). Question: does the Lord ever bring His trusting people into bondage to evil?
The answer of course is “No!” The Old Covenant was the invention of the people at Mt. Sinai: when they declared, “all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do” (Ex. 19:8). That promise of the people was vain for in only a few days they were bowing down to worship a golden calf (32:2-8).
The Old Covenant has always been the promise of the people; the New Covenant has always been the promise of God.
We have a really beautiful hymn that we often sing in worship services, that is thoroughly Old Covenant in its meaning. Written by a Church of England pastor celebrating his teenage daughters being confirmed in the church, it breathes the Old Covenant idea:
“O Jesus, I have promised, to serve Thee to the end; be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend ...”
In total innocence, he led his teenage daughters to make a vain promise to the Lord; some may say, that’s good—maybe their making the promise helped them to remember to keep it. The hymn goes on, “I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear ... ”
But human strength is helpless in the face of worldly temptation. The clergyman meant well; but persuading his daughters to make vain promises to God is not good enough.
Fortunately, we can “convert” this Old Covenant hymn into a beautiful and powerful New Covenant hymn by changing only one word throughout: “O Jesus, I have chosen ... ” “The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise ... ” says a wise writer in the book Steps to Christ, p. 47.
Oh, how the Holy Spirit will bless as you lead your children into the New Covenant!
Was it the Lord’s intention that His people should embrace the Old Covenant?
Paul says that the old covenant “genders to bondage” (Gal. 4:24). Question: does the Lord ever bring His trusting people into bondage to evil?
The answer of course is “No!” The Old Covenant was the invention of the people at Mt. Sinai: when they declared, “all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do” (Ex. 19:8). That promise of the people was vain for in only a few days they were bowing down to worship a golden calf (32:2-8).
The Old Covenant has always been the promise of the people; the New Covenant has always been the promise of God.
We have a really beautiful hymn that we often sing in worship services, that is thoroughly Old Covenant in its meaning. Written by a Church of England pastor celebrating his teenage daughters being confirmed in the church, it breathes the Old Covenant idea:
“O Jesus, I have promised, to serve Thee to the end; be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend ...”
In total innocence, he led his teenage daughters to make a vain promise to the Lord; some may say, that’s good—maybe their making the promise helped them to remember to keep it. The hymn goes on, “I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear ... ”
But human strength is helpless in the face of worldly temptation. The clergyman meant well; but persuading his daughters to make vain promises to God is not good enough.
Fortunately, we can “convert” this Old Covenant hymn into a beautiful and powerful New Covenant hymn by changing only one word throughout: “O Jesus, I have chosen ... ” “The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise ... ” says a wise writer in the book Steps to Christ, p. 47.
Oh, how the Holy Spirit will bless as you lead your children into the New Covenant!
message from heaven # 14
Robert J. Wieland
If you have made a mistake (which, God forbid!) ... King David made one, in fact two—adultery and the sin of murder to cover it up; he feared that he had committed the unpardonable sin and heaven was closed to him forever, because he cried out in near despair, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).
But if you have indeed made a mistake, your heavenly Father does not cast you off as worthless or hopeless.
He is deeply wounded and sorry, but He redeems and re-builds broken, ruined souls.
How does He do it?
He gives the most precious gift of repentance.
No one can repent on his own; you have to open your guilty heart to receive it from Him: “Him [Jesus of Nazareth] hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).
The realization of God’s forgiveness: it’s the most exhilarating experience we humans can know. It’s the nearest to the overwhelming joy that Jesus must have known when after His resurrection He declared in triumph, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore!” And then that earth-and-heaven-shaking, “AMEN!” (Rev. 1:18).
You just want to shout for all the universe to hear you, “Behold! I am forgiven!” You’ve been carrying a burden that weighed a ton; now at last you are free.
Such forgiveness is God’s gift. It’s not the empty, supercilious “pardon” that means nothing; it’s a freeing from the burden of sin, the gift of a new hatred of sin, and the gift of a new love for righteousness.
You are born again. No more arrogance; you are like King Ahab, the murder-guilty king, when he was finally converted, we read that forever after he “walked softly” (1 Kings 21:27); he took a humble place from then on, and so will you. There will be no arrogant people strutting around in God’s New Jerusalem.
No one can honor the Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time be proud of himself/herself.
If you have made a mistake (which, God forbid!) ... King David made one, in fact two—adultery and the sin of murder to cover it up; he feared that he had committed the unpardonable sin and heaven was closed to him forever, because he cried out in near despair, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).
But if you have indeed made a mistake, your heavenly Father does not cast you off as worthless or hopeless.
He is deeply wounded and sorry, but He redeems and re-builds broken, ruined souls.
How does He do it?
He gives the most precious gift of repentance.
No one can repent on his own; you have to open your guilty heart to receive it from Him: “Him [Jesus of Nazareth] hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).
The realization of God’s forgiveness: it’s the most exhilarating experience we humans can know. It’s the nearest to the overwhelming joy that Jesus must have known when after His resurrection He declared in triumph, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore!” And then that earth-and-heaven-shaking, “AMEN!” (Rev. 1:18).
You just want to shout for all the universe to hear you, “Behold! I am forgiven!” You’ve been carrying a burden that weighed a ton; now at last you are free.
Such forgiveness is God’s gift. It’s not the empty, supercilious “pardon” that means nothing; it’s a freeing from the burden of sin, the gift of a new hatred of sin, and the gift of a new love for righteousness.
You are born again. No more arrogance; you are like King Ahab, the murder-guilty king, when he was finally converted, we read that forever after he “walked softly” (1 Kings 21:27); he took a humble place from then on, and so will you. There will be no arrogant people strutting around in God’s New Jerusalem.
No one can honor the Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time be proud of himself/herself.
message from heaven # 13
Robert J. Wieland
What can one do when he/she has discovered the enormity of the sin which is in the heart? When you feel deeply guilty, polluted, alienated from the sunshine of God’s favor? When finally the blinders have been torn off your eyes and you discern your nakedness of soul? The pain is intense!
(1) First, be thankful that at last you have come to see it, for this is possible only if you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. His first work is to “convict of sin” (John 16:8). If He left you happy and content to go on in your sin, then you would have a reason to be worried (but that’s when we humans are not concerned!). “Blessed are they that mourn” because of the realization of deep sin (Matt. 5:4). If you have a lethal, undetected cancer and are blissfully unconcerned, you are not “blessed.” You can be happy when you realize the truth and can seek healing before it’s too late.
(2) The question “What shall I DO about my sin” comes short of the truth. The proper question is, “What shall I BELIEVE?” Yes, you can find examples in the Bible of people who have asked, “What must I DO to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), but superficial reading has encouraged many dear people to lean upon a program of salvation by works, DOING something. Please note that this jailer in Philippi was not an inspired man; but Paul was inspired when he answered him, “BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 31). Salvation lies not in DOING this or that good thing but in BELIEVING truth. And then the believing “works” (Gal. 5:6).
(3) Now, what do you believe? (a) That the Son of God has become your Savior, (b) that He has died the death that your sin deserves, (c) that it is He who in love has convicted you of the deep sinfulness of sin, (d) that He has experienced the hell that you would experience were it not for His sacrifice, (e) that He is now working as High Priest night and day, 24 hours a day, to save you from sin, (f) that the Father has “accepted” you “in Him” (Matt. 3:17; Eph. 1:6)?
(4) And then? Your heart is melted; the hardness is melted; the tears flow, not because of fear but because of everlasting gratitude.
What can one do when he/she has discovered the enormity of the sin which is in the heart? When you feel deeply guilty, polluted, alienated from the sunshine of God’s favor? When finally the blinders have been torn off your eyes and you discern your nakedness of soul? The pain is intense!
(1) First, be thankful that at last you have come to see it, for this is possible only if you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. His first work is to “convict of sin” (John 16:8). If He left you happy and content to go on in your sin, then you would have a reason to be worried (but that’s when we humans are not concerned!). “Blessed are they that mourn” because of the realization of deep sin (Matt. 5:4). If you have a lethal, undetected cancer and are blissfully unconcerned, you are not “blessed.” You can be happy when you realize the truth and can seek healing before it’s too late.
(2) The question “What shall I DO about my sin” comes short of the truth. The proper question is, “What shall I BELIEVE?” Yes, you can find examples in the Bible of people who have asked, “What must I DO to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), but superficial reading has encouraged many dear people to lean upon a program of salvation by works, DOING something. Please note that this jailer in Philippi was not an inspired man; but Paul was inspired when he answered him, “BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 31). Salvation lies not in DOING this or that good thing but in BELIEVING truth. And then the believing “works” (Gal. 5:6).
(3) Now, what do you believe? (a) That the Son of God has become your Savior, (b) that He has died the death that your sin deserves, (c) that it is He who in love has convicted you of the deep sinfulness of sin, (d) that He has experienced the hell that you would experience were it not for His sacrifice, (e) that He is now working as High Priest night and day, 24 hours a day, to save you from sin, (f) that the Father has “accepted” you “in Him” (Matt. 3:17; Eph. 1:6)?
(4) And then? Your heart is melted; the hardness is melted; the tears flow, not because of fear but because of everlasting gratitude.
message from heaven # 12
Robert J. Wieland
There is a strange expression in Psalm 90:7: “We have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.” If God is “angry” with us, and His “wrath” hangs over us, we are indeed terrified and can’t help being so. (It can be a deep, slow anxiety based on terror).
We long for love, for good will, for someone important to us to be pleased with us. You long for some person you love to smile upon you, to know he/she truly loves you. Such love is the “sweet mystery of life.” Disappointment in love is painful, sometimes lifelong, an entire life shadowed; deep dark secrets of pain are cherished.
David knew that the most wonderful woman in the world could never bring him the happiness that a glimpse of the smiling face of God could give him: “There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’ Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart” (Psalm 4:6, 7).
A false or distorted gospel clouds that otherwise smiling face of God. For example, a successful evangelist wrote to me that he believes a cloud of condemnation hangs over the head of every person in the world who has not chosen to “accept Christ.” Yes, millions believe this; and no wonder they live sad lives. But the Bible teaches that the “condemnation” that came upon “all men” “in Adam” was reversed by the second Adam for the same “all men” (Rom. 5:15-18).
Galatians 3:13 tells us that the “curse” (same as the “condemnation”!) that was due to come upon us came upon Christ instead, for He “was made to be a curse for us.” That “curse” or “condemnation” was the sentence of death, not mere “sleep,” but the real thing. If you feel that God is holding that over your head, you can’t help but feel miserable! But Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ died that “death” for “every man.” 2 Corinthians 5:19 says quite clearly that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.”
Your job is to believe the simple word of God; He is not imputing your trespasses to you! He imputed them to Christ instead; He bore them, He has already set you free from them. That’s why He can send His rain on both the just and the unjust! Yes, the truth is that you and I are by nature sinners; BUT because of the sacrifice of Christ He treats us as though we were innocent! This is not effervescent emotion; it is solid truth.
There is a strange expression in Psalm 90:7: “We have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.” If God is “angry” with us, and His “wrath” hangs over us, we are indeed terrified and can’t help being so. (It can be a deep, slow anxiety based on terror).
We long for love, for good will, for someone important to us to be pleased with us. You long for some person you love to smile upon you, to know he/she truly loves you. Such love is the “sweet mystery of life.” Disappointment in love is painful, sometimes lifelong, an entire life shadowed; deep dark secrets of pain are cherished.
David knew that the most wonderful woman in the world could never bring him the happiness that a glimpse of the smiling face of God could give him: “There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’ Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart” (Psalm 4:6, 7).
A false or distorted gospel clouds that otherwise smiling face of God. For example, a successful evangelist wrote to me that he believes a cloud of condemnation hangs over the head of every person in the world who has not chosen to “accept Christ.” Yes, millions believe this; and no wonder they live sad lives. But the Bible teaches that the “condemnation” that came upon “all men” “in Adam” was reversed by the second Adam for the same “all men” (Rom. 5:15-18).
Galatians 3:13 tells us that the “curse” (same as the “condemnation”!) that was due to come upon us came upon Christ instead, for He “was made to be a curse for us.” That “curse” or “condemnation” was the sentence of death, not mere “sleep,” but the real thing. If you feel that God is holding that over your head, you can’t help but feel miserable! But Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ died that “death” for “every man.” 2 Corinthians 5:19 says quite clearly that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.”
Your job is to believe the simple word of God; He is not imputing your trespasses to you! He imputed them to Christ instead; He bore them, He has already set you free from them. That’s why He can send His rain on both the just and the unjust! Yes, the truth is that you and I are by nature sinners; BUT because of the sacrifice of Christ He treats us as though we were innocent! This is not effervescent emotion; it is solid truth.
message from heaven # 11
Robert J. Wieland
Dial Daily Bread has been on safari this weekend! We were invited to a church in Los Angeles where we were not to preach our own sermon (which the people would soon forget, anyway), but to present the actual “most precious message” which “the Lord in His great mercy sent to His people” 120 years ago.
It was the message that the Lord intended should “lighten the earth with glory” as Revelation 18:1-4 says it must come.
Scholars have distilled the message into ten basic “good news” capsules which we will present for the next few days:
Number One: Christ has already accomplished something for every human being. He died the “second death” of everyone and thus actually elected “all men” to be saved. But this is not Universalism, for men have the power to resist and reject what Christ has given them. Esau is the example: he was born a few minutes before his twin, Jacob, and thus inherited the precious “birthright;” but when he grew up, he abandoned it, sold it “for a mess of pottage” (a gourmet meal that he was hungry for!), and never stopped crying in despair ever afterwards for he could never get it back.
The Lord wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3, 4), but not everyone will let Him save them. They repeat Esau’s deadly sin—they throw away what Christ has given them, yes, given them, not merely offered them.
In the final judgment at the end of the 1000 years millennium, the lost will be resurrected in the “second resurrection” to face their final judgment; then it will be seen clearly that He gave them salvation but they threw it away.
Cherish the gift that the Lord has given you!
Dial Daily Bread has been on safari this weekend! We were invited to a church in Los Angeles where we were not to preach our own sermon (which the people would soon forget, anyway), but to present the actual “most precious message” which “the Lord in His great mercy sent to His people” 120 years ago.
It was the message that the Lord intended should “lighten the earth with glory” as Revelation 18:1-4 says it must come.
Scholars have distilled the message into ten basic “good news” capsules which we will present for the next few days:
Number One: Christ has already accomplished something for every human being. He died the “second death” of everyone and thus actually elected “all men” to be saved. But this is not Universalism, for men have the power to resist and reject what Christ has given them. Esau is the example: he was born a few minutes before his twin, Jacob, and thus inherited the precious “birthright;” but when he grew up, he abandoned it, sold it “for a mess of pottage” (a gourmet meal that he was hungry for!), and never stopped crying in despair ever afterwards for he could never get it back.
The Lord wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3, 4), but not everyone will let Him save them. They repeat Esau’s deadly sin—they throw away what Christ has given them, yes, given them, not merely offered them.
In the final judgment at the end of the 1000 years millennium, the lost will be resurrected in the “second resurrection” to face their final judgment; then it will be seen clearly that He gave them salvation but they threw it away.
Cherish the gift that the Lord has given you!
message from heaven # 10
Robert J. Wieland
Number Three of the “Ten Truths That Make the 1888 Message Unique”:
There are two things that we MUST believe when we come to Christ:
“Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe [1] that He is, and [2] that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
To believe that God IS, in a mechanical way as the Creator (instead of godless evolution), is a good beginning for any human soul coming to conversion. But it is just the beginning; the next step is to believe that He hears and answers your prayer, that He rewards those who open their hearts to Him, that He is a God of love.
And this is what you learn from the cross of Christ: the Father permitted Christ to be treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves! Here the love [agape] is demonstrated.
When we put this together, we see the next great truth: It is easy to be saved and it is hard to be lost IF we understand how good the Gospel good news is!
And this is shocking to us.
Satan has conditioned us all to accept the idea that following Jesus is a hard way to live; we have to give up so many pleasurable things in order to follow Jesus, is the idea.
But it is backwards from the truth. We don’t give up anything valuable when we come to Him; all we give up is JUNK.
But Satan has taught us to believe that junk is what makes us happy.
When Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus in his hate-filled odyssey against the Christians, the Lord met him and gave him a grain of truth: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). Saul was ruining himself in his enmity against Christ: he would have come down with some terrible disease if he had gone on.
Number Three of the “Ten Truths That Make the 1888 Message Unique”:
There are two things that we MUST believe when we come to Christ:
“Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe [1] that He is, and [2] that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
To believe that God IS, in a mechanical way as the Creator (instead of godless evolution), is a good beginning for any human soul coming to conversion. But it is just the beginning; the next step is to believe that He hears and answers your prayer, that He rewards those who open their hearts to Him, that He is a God of love.
And this is what you learn from the cross of Christ: the Father permitted Christ to be treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves! Here the love [agape] is demonstrated.
When we put this together, we see the next great truth: It is easy to be saved and it is hard to be lost IF we understand how good the Gospel good news is!
And this is shocking to us.
Satan has conditioned us all to accept the idea that following Jesus is a hard way to live; we have to give up so many pleasurable things in order to follow Jesus, is the idea.
But it is backwards from the truth. We don’t give up anything valuable when we come to Him; all we give up is JUNK.
But Satan has taught us to believe that junk is what makes us happy.
When Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus in his hate-filled odyssey against the Christians, the Lord met him and gave him a grain of truth: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). Saul was ruining himself in his enmity against Christ: he would have come down with some terrible disease if he had gone on.
message from heaven # 9
There is no end of people in the world today who want to be converted; but they feel that it is beyond them to be as happy in the Lord as they want to be. They would give anything if they could be at peace with God, and possess in their hearts the love for other people that they feel it is their duty to have.
The burden of d-u-t-y lies heavy on their hearts; they go to sleep at night with deep fear just beneath the surface, and wake up next morning with the same burden there.
The church should come to their aid immediately; but too often the church does not understand what they need—a knowledge of the New Covenant.
One hundred twenty years ago the dear Lord “in His great mercy” sent a “most precious message” that contained the liberating New Covenant truths.
If you b-e-l-i-e-v-e in Jesus, ... that is, if your heart has understood the truth about Him—that the death He died on His cross was not just a week-end of sleep, ... but that He died your second death, you can begin to comprehend the breadth, and depth, and length, and height of His love (agape) as you never saw it before (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19).
Jesus was probably very tired when they nailed Him to His cross; the Ladies Aid Society of Jerusalem would usually offer crucified victims a sponge soaked with narcotics; and they offered it to Jesus.
But He turned His head and refused to drink it (Luke 23:36; Matt. 27:34); He must keep His mind clear to endure the pain of His Father’s rejection of Him; He must endure the curse that sin brings in the end. Isaiah says, “He hath poured out His soul unto death” (53:12).
Read that whole chapter, on your knees, slowly, alone; then thank Him, that He took your second death and died it for you.
Then thank Him again, ... and again. You will never be the same.
The burden of d-u-t-y lies heavy on their hearts; they go to sleep at night with deep fear just beneath the surface, and wake up next morning with the same burden there.
The church should come to their aid immediately; but too often the church does not understand what they need—a knowledge of the New Covenant.
One hundred twenty years ago the dear Lord “in His great mercy” sent a “most precious message” that contained the liberating New Covenant truths.
If you b-e-l-i-e-v-e in Jesus, ... that is, if your heart has understood the truth about Him—that the death He died on His cross was not just a week-end of sleep, ... but that He died your second death, you can begin to comprehend the breadth, and depth, and length, and height of His love (agape) as you never saw it before (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19).
Jesus was probably very tired when they nailed Him to His cross; the Ladies Aid Society of Jerusalem would usually offer crucified victims a sponge soaked with narcotics; and they offered it to Jesus.
But He turned His head and refused to drink it (Luke 23:36; Matt. 27:34); He must keep His mind clear to endure the pain of His Father’s rejection of Him; He must endure the curse that sin brings in the end. Isaiah says, “He hath poured out His soul unto death” (53:12).
Read that whole chapter, on your knees, slowly, alone; then thank Him, that He took your second death and died it for you.
Then thank Him again, ... and again. You will never be the same.
message from heaven # 8
Robert J. Wieland
The New Covenant truths were the central issues in the 1888 message story. Young Waggoner had been gifted by the Lord with an understanding that far surpassed that of his silver-haired elder brethren. Ellen White declared that the Lord had done this for him. She said, “Since I made the statement last Sabbath that the view of the covenants as it had been taught by Brother [E. J.] Waggoner was truth, it seems that great relief has come to many minds” (Letter to Uriah Smith 59, 1890).
Old Covenant thinking on the part of sincere Christians who want to follow Jesus “genders to bondage” (Gal. 4:24). It’s tragic that they do not realize that the Old Covenant ideas that have enslaved their thinking are a counterfeit of the pure, true gospel. They wonder why their “Christian experience” is so disappointing; they do not know the truth of the New Covenant. They assume therefore that the gospel is impotent, when they have inherited only a distorted view of it.
The Old Covenant was formally endorsed by the leaders of Israel at Mt. Sinai when they got together and voted to respond to the Lord’s Good News Gospel declaration of what He would do for them, “All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do” (Ex. 19:8; in a matter of days they were worshipping a golden calf!).
The Lord never asked them to make that promise! When the Lord in Genesis 15:6 called Abraham out of his tent to count the stars of the Milky Way and declared to him as a divine promise, “So shall thy seed be,” He did not ask the patriarch to make any promise in return! Abraham’s job was to believe His divine promise.
God’s promise was one-sided. And when Abraham did believe, the Lord graciously “counted it to him for righteousness” (15:6). That’s what He does for all of us; our promises to Him are vain.
Worse, because the Lord does not call for such vain promises, the whole system is lethal, producing “bondage.”
Now, let us walk in the bright sunshine of the New Covenant promises of God.
The New Covenant truths were the central issues in the 1888 message story. Young Waggoner had been gifted by the Lord with an understanding that far surpassed that of his silver-haired elder brethren. Ellen White declared that the Lord had done this for him. She said, “Since I made the statement last Sabbath that the view of the covenants as it had been taught by Brother [E. J.] Waggoner was truth, it seems that great relief has come to many minds” (Letter to Uriah Smith 59, 1890).
Old Covenant thinking on the part of sincere Christians who want to follow Jesus “genders to bondage” (Gal. 4:24). It’s tragic that they do not realize that the Old Covenant ideas that have enslaved their thinking are a counterfeit of the pure, true gospel. They wonder why their “Christian experience” is so disappointing; they do not know the truth of the New Covenant. They assume therefore that the gospel is impotent, when they have inherited only a distorted view of it.
The Old Covenant was formally endorsed by the leaders of Israel at Mt. Sinai when they got together and voted to respond to the Lord’s Good News Gospel declaration of what He would do for them, “All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do” (Ex. 19:8; in a matter of days they were worshipping a golden calf!).
The Lord never asked them to make that promise! When the Lord in Genesis 15:6 called Abraham out of his tent to count the stars of the Milky Way and declared to him as a divine promise, “So shall thy seed be,” He did not ask the patriarch to make any promise in return! Abraham’s job was to believe His divine promise.
God’s promise was one-sided. And when Abraham did believe, the Lord graciously “counted it to him for righteousness” (15:6). That’s what He does for all of us; our promises to Him are vain.
Worse, because the Lord does not call for such vain promises, the whole system is lethal, producing “bondage.”
Now, let us walk in the bright sunshine of the New Covenant promises of God.
message from heaven # 7
Robert J. Wieland
An old English verb in the King James Version is “quicken,” which means “make alive.” “The Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21). The Holy Spirit “quickens” (6:63).
God “quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17).
That is the mind and the thinking of the Lord; to Him all things that will someday be, He considers as already being.
This writer is in bereavement for the loss of a beloved wife, Grace, of 66 years of happy marriage; but the good news in that Romans verse is that the Lord will “quicken” her and He sees her as already resurrected and glorified.
We can have the mind of Christ by faith; and thus enjoy peace and confidence in a bright and happy future ... “in Christ.”
She used to ask, “Can’t we take a vacation and go somewhere, like other people do?”
Well, I wanted to do so, as her husband; but there seemed always to be some problem, some meetings coming up that we had to go to, some writing deadline to be met.
Now comes that word “quicken”: the Lord has promised to “quicken” us both and He says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; ... Depend upon the Lord, and He will grant you your heart’s desire” (Psalm 37:3, 4).
A little later the Psalmist testifies, “I waited, waited for the Lord, and He bent down to me and heard my cry; He brought me up out of the muddy pit, out of the mire and the clay; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm footing; and on my lips He put a new song, a song of praise to our God” (40:1-3).
You want happiness? There’s your path to it.
An old English verb in the King James Version is “quicken,” which means “make alive.” “The Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21). The Holy Spirit “quickens” (6:63).
God “quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17).
That is the mind and the thinking of the Lord; to Him all things that will someday be, He considers as already being.
This writer is in bereavement for the loss of a beloved wife, Grace, of 66 years of happy marriage; but the good news in that Romans verse is that the Lord will “quicken” her and He sees her as already resurrected and glorified.
We can have the mind of Christ by faith; and thus enjoy peace and confidence in a bright and happy future ... “in Christ.”
She used to ask, “Can’t we take a vacation and go somewhere, like other people do?”
Well, I wanted to do so, as her husband; but there seemed always to be some problem, some meetings coming up that we had to go to, some writing deadline to be met.
Now comes that word “quicken”: the Lord has promised to “quicken” us both and He says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; ... Depend upon the Lord, and He will grant you your heart’s desire” (Psalm 37:3, 4).
A little later the Psalmist testifies, “I waited, waited for the Lord, and He bent down to me and heard my cry; He brought me up out of the muddy pit, out of the mire and the clay; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm footing; and on my lips He put a new song, a song of praise to our God” (40:1-3).
You want happiness? There’s your path to it.
message from heaven # 6
Robert J. Wieland
Our Savior “condemned sin in the flesh,” the fallen, sinful flesh that all of us have inherited from our fallen father, Adam. In so doing, Christ has saved the human race!
He forever outlawed sin in the vast universe of God by defeating it in its last lair. Sin has no “home,” no refuge now, in the vast universe of God!
Sin does not reside in things; it resides in human hearts. Satan as the fallen Lucifer had tempted the other worlds to join him in rebellion, but they refused. (Temptation is not sin; what’s sin, is giving in.) Only our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed the fallen Lucifer’s lies against God.
No way could Christ have defeated sin if the dogma of the “Immaculate Conception” were true: if in His incarnation Christ had taken upon Himself the unfallen, sinless nature of Adam in the Garden, sin would have been forever enshrined and crowned in our human flesh and then Satan would have forever won the great controversy between Christ and Satan.
Doubtless there are many sincere people who have never thought this through; they don’t realize that their dogma proclaimed in 1854, and required of all to believe. is a stroke of victory in favor of the enemy in the great controversy.
In mercy to the remnant church (and the world), “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people” 120 years ago that told the saving truth in a clear way so simple that a child could understand. Christ took on His sinless nature our fallen, sinful nature, so that He might save the human race from sin. “Tempted in all points like as we are [tempted], yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), He has delivered the whole human race from captivity to sin.
Most do not understand it, or believe it; but nonetheless it is true.
And the Lord has promised in Revelation 18:1-4 that the full beautiful truth will yet “lighten the earth with glory.” He wanted the Seventh-day Adventist Church to enjoy that glorious experience 120 years ago, but the grey-haired elders said No! (not 100% of them, but the vast majority so that the blessing was indeed “kept away” from our people and “from the world”; cf. Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235).
Our Savior “condemned sin in the flesh,” the fallen, sinful flesh that all of us have inherited from our fallen father, Adam. In so doing, Christ has saved the human race!
He forever outlawed sin in the vast universe of God by defeating it in its last lair. Sin has no “home,” no refuge now, in the vast universe of God!
Sin does not reside in things; it resides in human hearts. Satan as the fallen Lucifer had tempted the other worlds to join him in rebellion, but they refused. (Temptation is not sin; what’s sin, is giving in.) Only our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed the fallen Lucifer’s lies against God.
No way could Christ have defeated sin if the dogma of the “Immaculate Conception” were true: if in His incarnation Christ had taken upon Himself the unfallen, sinless nature of Adam in the Garden, sin would have been forever enshrined and crowned in our human flesh and then Satan would have forever won the great controversy between Christ and Satan.
Doubtless there are many sincere people who have never thought this through; they don’t realize that their dogma proclaimed in 1854, and required of all to believe. is a stroke of victory in favor of the enemy in the great controversy.
In mercy to the remnant church (and the world), “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people” 120 years ago that told the saving truth in a clear way so simple that a child could understand. Christ took on His sinless nature our fallen, sinful nature, so that He might save the human race from sin. “Tempted in all points like as we are [tempted], yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), He has delivered the whole human race from captivity to sin.
Most do not understand it, or believe it; but nonetheless it is true.
And the Lord has promised in Revelation 18:1-4 that the full beautiful truth will yet “lighten the earth with glory.” He wanted the Seventh-day Adventist Church to enjoy that glorious experience 120 years ago, but the grey-haired elders said No! (not 100% of them, but the vast majority so that the blessing was indeed “kept away” from our people and “from the world”; cf. Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235).
message from heaven # 5
Robert J. Wieland
The fact that we mentioned “the second death” has stirred up some interest on the Internet.
The Bible is clear that man is by nature mortal; the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has been adopted from Roman paganism; the Bible teaches a more comforting truth: death is a sleep in which we rest until the resurrection morning. When Lazarus died, the Lord Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11), “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (vss. 12-14).
This comforting truth is taught throughout the Bible. The “sleep” of death is awakened by the coming of Jesus in the resurrection: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18).
Those who have trained themselves to be unhappy in the Lord’s holy kingdom will sleep on until at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (vs. 6). The fact that “God IS love [agape]” is taught throughout Scripture; He will never force people who have spent their lifetime seeking the sinful pleasures of the fallen, evil world, would be miserable to live in the New Jerusalem: the Lord will simply give them what they want—to be eternally separated from the “face” of the One who is their Savior who loved them so much that He died the second death so that they might share eternity with Him. The doctrine of the “second death” is a part of the doctrine that God IS love [agape]. Everywhere we look, that is the theme of the Bible.
When our eyes are opened and we finally comprehend this truth, His love [agape] “constrains us” to live “henceforth” unto Him who so “loved us and gave Himself for us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).
The fact that we mentioned “the second death” has stirred up some interest on the Internet.
The Bible is clear that man is by nature mortal; the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has been adopted from Roman paganism; the Bible teaches a more comforting truth: death is a sleep in which we rest until the resurrection morning. When Lazarus died, the Lord Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11), “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (vss. 12-14).
This comforting truth is taught throughout the Bible. The “sleep” of death is awakened by the coming of Jesus in the resurrection: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18).
Those who have trained themselves to be unhappy in the Lord’s holy kingdom will sleep on until at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (vs. 6). The fact that “God IS love [agape]” is taught throughout Scripture; He will never force people who have spent their lifetime seeking the sinful pleasures of the fallen, evil world, would be miserable to live in the New Jerusalem: the Lord will simply give them what they want—to be eternally separated from the “face” of the One who is their Savior who loved them so much that He died the second death so that they might share eternity with Him. The doctrine of the “second death” is a part of the doctrine that God IS love [agape]. Everywhere we look, that is the theme of the Bible.
When our eyes are opened and we finally comprehend this truth, His love [agape] “constrains us” to live “henceforth” unto Him who so “loved us and gave Himself for us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).
Saturday, July 19, 2008
message from heaven # 4
Robert J. Wieland
When the Lord Jesus saves a man, He doesn’t expect the man to help save himself, because he can’t. Jesus Christ is a Savior 100 percent.
But He does expect the sinner to cooperate with Him.
Psalm 130 expresses the cry of any who knows he is lost: “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... If Thou Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (vss. 1, 3).
The answer of course is ... no one.
But then comes the comforting word: “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared [reverenced]” (vs. 4).
The Psalmist experienced the down-and-out despair of feeling lost, but only a taste of what Jesus experienced on the cross when He cried out in despair, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father did not answer His Son, because Christ must be left to experience to the full this lethal despair; if He had not experienced it for us, we would have to experience it, and therein is eternal death. Jesus felt as if the Father had truly forsaken Him forever!
If sinful man were left to experience to the full this lethal despair, he would not be able to “cry” unto the Lord; no human soul has ever in the 6000+ years of earth’s history had to experience that total despair except the Lord Jesus. It kills ... forever.
Some may object, “Suicides experience it!” Not so, really; they always had the option left them to “cry unto the Lord.” And the Lord was ready to hear for Jesus promised, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Any time, no matter how sinful.
If the Lord has permitted you to experience Psalm 130, be happy. In knowing Him, you will know that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (vss. 7, 8).
There are the 144,000 of Revelation 14:1-6; they who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5)!
When the Lord Jesus saves a man, He doesn’t expect the man to help save himself, because he can’t. Jesus Christ is a Savior 100 percent.
But He does expect the sinner to cooperate with Him.
Psalm 130 expresses the cry of any who knows he is lost: “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... If Thou Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (vss. 1, 3).
The answer of course is ... no one.
But then comes the comforting word: “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared [reverenced]” (vs. 4).
The Psalmist experienced the down-and-out despair of feeling lost, but only a taste of what Jesus experienced on the cross when He cried out in despair, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father did not answer His Son, because Christ must be left to experience to the full this lethal despair; if He had not experienced it for us, we would have to experience it, and therein is eternal death. Jesus felt as if the Father had truly forsaken Him forever!
If sinful man were left to experience to the full this lethal despair, he would not be able to “cry” unto the Lord; no human soul has ever in the 6000+ years of earth’s history had to experience that total despair except the Lord Jesus. It kills ... forever.
Some may object, “Suicides experience it!” Not so, really; they always had the option left them to “cry unto the Lord.” And the Lord was ready to hear for Jesus promised, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Any time, no matter how sinful.
If the Lord has permitted you to experience Psalm 130, be happy. In knowing Him, you will know that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (vss. 7, 8).
There are the 144,000 of Revelation 14:1-6; they who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5)!
message from heaven # 3
Robert J. Wieland
There are many who are bewildered. They do not know where they are going, and they are afraid.
The message of the Bible is just what they need. There are two things that the Lord says they must do—not some difficult to-do thing, but something to believe:
(1) “He that cometh to God must believe that He is ...” (Heb. 11:6, first part).
That’s the “work” you must do! Not something to “do” that is beyond you to accomplish, but a simple step in choosing to believe that God is, He exists. You may be an atheist, but you can take this step by choosing to believe. You must! And you can, for it’s only simple truth.
The atheist may say, “That’s too difficult!” No, it’s the easiest thing any human can “do”—to believe God exists. Just look at the world around you, from the tiniest leaf (that no human can ever “make”) to the unnumbered worlds in the Milky Way.
(2) Step number two, what you MUST believe: “that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (second part).
Step number one is that of the “deist,” the person who believes that some mysterious power made the universe and then walked off and left it to care for itself. That kind of “faith” is not good enough.
No one can truly believe in “God” without recognizing that “God IS love [agape]” (1 John 4:8). And right there we go to the cross on which the Son of God died the second death of every human.
The truth is all one package, complete; you can’t select and choose.
Difficult? No; listen to John the Baptist: he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world “ (John 1:29). “Behold” means to take a l-o-n-g look; stay on your knees with your “closet” door closed as Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:6: “When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” He is the same “Father” who notices when a little sparrow falls in the forest floor (Matt. 10:29). Believe, appreciate, revel, in the truth that that same heavenly Father notices you personally.
There are many who are bewildered. They do not know where they are going, and they are afraid.
The message of the Bible is just what they need. There are two things that the Lord says they must do—not some difficult to-do thing, but something to believe:
(1) “He that cometh to God must believe that He is ...” (Heb. 11:6, first part).
That’s the “work” you must do! Not something to “do” that is beyond you to accomplish, but a simple step in choosing to believe that God is, He exists. You may be an atheist, but you can take this step by choosing to believe. You must! And you can, for it’s only simple truth.
The atheist may say, “That’s too difficult!” No, it’s the easiest thing any human can “do”—to believe God exists. Just look at the world around you, from the tiniest leaf (that no human can ever “make”) to the unnumbered worlds in the Milky Way.
(2) Step number two, what you MUST believe: “that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (second part).
Step number one is that of the “deist,” the person who believes that some mysterious power made the universe and then walked off and left it to care for itself. That kind of “faith” is not good enough.
No one can truly believe in “God” without recognizing that “God IS love [agape]” (1 John 4:8). And right there we go to the cross on which the Son of God died the second death of every human.
The truth is all one package, complete; you can’t select and choose.
Difficult? No; listen to John the Baptist: he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world “ (John 1:29). “Behold” means to take a l-o-n-g look; stay on your knees with your “closet” door closed as Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:6: “When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” He is the same “Father” who notices when a little sparrow falls in the forest floor (Matt. 10:29). Believe, appreciate, revel, in the truth that that same heavenly Father notices you personally.
message from heaven # 2
Robert J. Wieland
As we come nearer to the end, a change comes in the “Christian experience” of God’s people. Their deepest heart concern ceases to be that of saving their own souls, to a concern for the glory of Christ in the closing hours of the “great controversy between Christ and Satan.” (When I was a boy, some silver-haired elders in the church told me that the greatest question is that of my own soul’s salvation.)
These people of God in the last days turn away from their previous concern for their own salvation to a concern for Another—that He emerge victorious from the “battle” He is in.
This change in “Christian experience” can be described in the terms the Lord Jesus uses in John 15: “Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (vs. 15).
As we come closer to the end, these “friends” concern is for that “battle” that Christ is in, and not for self.
This change in “Christian experience” orientation can also be described as graduating out of the Old Covenant “Christian experience” into the New. It’s coming out of the shadows into the bright sunlight of “present truth” (a term in 2 Peter 1:12).
The “present truth” is New Covenant living, not Old.
This change is also passing from Revelation 18 into Revelation 19 where we find those four grand Hallelujah Choruses, each greater than Handel’s (vss. 1-17). It can at last be said that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (19:6, 7). At last!
Although the Lord is “omnipotent,” He cannot force the nuptials. It cannot be said that He “reigneth” until her nuptial devotion to Him as to a divine Husband is real. Thus there is a “woman” whose marital devotion He can only wait, and wait, to see. The good news that rejoices one’s heart is that this change in spiritual growth is actually taking place. Don’t be left behind!
As we come nearer to the end, a change comes in the “Christian experience” of God’s people. Their deepest heart concern ceases to be that of saving their own souls, to a concern for the glory of Christ in the closing hours of the “great controversy between Christ and Satan.” (When I was a boy, some silver-haired elders in the church told me that the greatest question is that of my own soul’s salvation.)
These people of God in the last days turn away from their previous concern for their own salvation to a concern for Another—that He emerge victorious from the “battle” He is in.
This change in “Christian experience” can be described in the terms the Lord Jesus uses in John 15: “Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (vs. 15).
As we come closer to the end, these “friends” concern is for that “battle” that Christ is in, and not for self.
This change in “Christian experience” orientation can also be described as graduating out of the Old Covenant “Christian experience” into the New. It’s coming out of the shadows into the bright sunlight of “present truth” (a term in 2 Peter 1:12).
The “present truth” is New Covenant living, not Old.
This change is also passing from Revelation 18 into Revelation 19 where we find those four grand Hallelujah Choruses, each greater than Handel’s (vss. 1-17). It can at last be said that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (19:6, 7). At last!
Although the Lord is “omnipotent,” He cannot force the nuptials. It cannot be said that He “reigneth” until her nuptial devotion to Him as to a divine Husband is real. Thus there is a “woman” whose marital devotion He can only wait, and wait, to see. The good news that rejoices one’s heart is that this change in spiritual growth is actually taking place. Don’t be left behind!
message from heaven # 1
Robert J. Wieland
There are times when everything has seemed to go wrong, and deep, dark disappointment overwhelms us.
The temptation is fierce—for us to think that the Lord has forsaken us.
But He has promised solemnly, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).
The Father was forced to withdraw His beams of light from His only Son while He hung on His cross. Jesus screamed in agony, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father never truly forsook His only Son dying on His cross; but He was forced to permit Jesus to feel totally forsaken, so that we should never have to feel that way!
To feel totally forsaken by the Lord is a terrible experience; and for one to believe it, would be a sin, for He has promised never to “leave us nor forsake us.” Yes, to disbelieve what the Lord has promised would be a sin which we would want to repent of immediately.
To be tempted is not itself sin; thus, it is not a sin to feel forsaken by the Lord. The sin comes when we believe Satan’s lie to disbelieve what God has promised.
What Satan wants is to break our hold on the Lord and thus to separate our souls from Him. Satan wants to drag us out into the cold dark emptiness of hell—which is eternal forsakenness by the Lord.
Jesus has saved us from that—forever. Now make your heart choice to believe that truth; pray with the distraught father in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24). You can never perish while you cling to that desperate prayer.
Why does the Lord permit you to go through this desperate experience?
There are times when everything has seemed to go wrong, and deep, dark disappointment overwhelms us.
The temptation is fierce—for us to think that the Lord has forsaken us.
But He has promised solemnly, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).
The Father was forced to withdraw His beams of light from His only Son while He hung on His cross. Jesus screamed in agony, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father never truly forsook His only Son dying on His cross; but He was forced to permit Jesus to feel totally forsaken, so that we should never have to feel that way!
To feel totally forsaken by the Lord is a terrible experience; and for one to believe it, would be a sin, for He has promised never to “leave us nor forsake us.” Yes, to disbelieve what the Lord has promised would be a sin which we would want to repent of immediately.
To be tempted is not itself sin; thus, it is not a sin to feel forsaken by the Lord. The sin comes when we believe Satan’s lie to disbelieve what God has promised.
What Satan wants is to break our hold on the Lord and thus to separate our souls from Him. Satan wants to drag us out into the cold dark emptiness of hell—which is eternal forsakenness by the Lord.
Jesus has saved us from that—forever. Now make your heart choice to believe that truth; pray with the distraught father in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24). You can never perish while you cling to that desperate prayer.
Why does the Lord permit you to go through this desperate experience?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
What delayed the flight?
Reva Lachica Moore
I’m a very punctual person. In all my appointments, I’m usually in the meeting place half an hour or more ahead of schedule. I give myself enough time for unexpected delays such as traffic jams.
Flying from Phoenix the other day, I woke up J.R. early to get ready. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we drove to the car rental place, and then took the shuttle back to the airport. We arrived at the terminal three hours before our departure time of 12:00 noon. I felt good even though J.R. kept chuckling for our being such early birds.
We found our gate and noticed that our scheduled time of departure had been changed to 1:30 p.m. One and a half hours later. This did not alarm us because we had almost three hours layover in Memphis and plenty of time to catch our next flight.
In the gate next to ours, due to the delay of the flights, they had announced free travel vouchers for 8 people who would like to give up their seats. It was obvious that many flights were delayed that morning.
We boarded the plane and three hours later, we landed in Memphis.
But a few others on our plane missed their next flights. The woman sitting next to me on her way to Washington was rerouted to Memphis, and she didn’t know why.
A woman grumbled for missing her plane. Someone tried to quiet her down.
After the plane landed in Memphis, we only had 45 minutes to go to our next gate. We quickly grabbed sandwiches and drink, scurried to our gate and gobbled down our food as soon as we sat down. I noticed that there were only a few passengers in the waiting area. “Where is everybody?” I asked J.R.
A few minutes later I glanced at the gate monitor and noticed our departure time had been changed from 7:30 p.m. to 8:53 p.m. I was puzzled because 8:53 p.m. was our supposedly arrival time in Baton Rouge. The other passengers were concerned, too.
What had caused the delay? There was no storm. No fog. What’s going on? I walked over to the counter to find out.
“Sir, are we delayed? And why?” I asked.
“President Bush was in Phoenix and had just arrived in Maryland. All flights are delayed!” The flight attendant replied.
“Yes, I know! I just came from Phoenix!” I exclaimed, for I suddenly remembered the unusual sight I saw while in the shuttle on our way to the Phoenix Airport that morning.
The shuttle bus driver had announced, “Hey folks, if you’ve not seen Air Force One before, there it is on your left!”
We stretched our necks and surely there it was! The President’s jet! Its name: United States of America. The U.S. President was in Phoenix the day before for a fundraising campaign.
And when we arrived at our departure gate in Phoenix that morning, another passenger remarked that Air Force One had just left. From the huge glass window, we saw a convoy of black SUVs and a fire truck headed to the other side of the airport.
“The security people cannot take a chance in having planes take off or land when the President’s jet is around,” J.R. said.
It did not occur to me that every precautionary step had to be taken for the safety of the U.S. President.
Wow! The most important man in the whole world was able to delay the flights!
Then I thought of yet another very important Being. One more important than President Bush. “Jesus Christ,” the King of Kings of the whole Universe! Our Creator God Who one day will come, unannounced, with a convoy of countless angels. He will not just stop all the flights. He will stop every activity of man in this world. And when He does, there is no resuming of any activity, except for those who will go to His heavenly place with Him.
I’m a very punctual person. In all my appointments, I’m usually in the meeting place half an hour or more ahead of schedule. I give myself enough time for unexpected delays such as traffic jams.
Flying from Phoenix the other day, I woke up J.R. early to get ready. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we drove to the car rental place, and then took the shuttle back to the airport. We arrived at the terminal three hours before our departure time of 12:00 noon. I felt good even though J.R. kept chuckling for our being such early birds.
We found our gate and noticed that our scheduled time of departure had been changed to 1:30 p.m. One and a half hours later. This did not alarm us because we had almost three hours layover in Memphis and plenty of time to catch our next flight.
In the gate next to ours, due to the delay of the flights, they had announced free travel vouchers for 8 people who would like to give up their seats. It was obvious that many flights were delayed that morning.
We boarded the plane and three hours later, we landed in Memphis.
But a few others on our plane missed their next flights. The woman sitting next to me on her way to Washington was rerouted to Memphis, and she didn’t know why.
A woman grumbled for missing her plane. Someone tried to quiet her down.
After the plane landed in Memphis, we only had 45 minutes to go to our next gate. We quickly grabbed sandwiches and drink, scurried to our gate and gobbled down our food as soon as we sat down. I noticed that there were only a few passengers in the waiting area. “Where is everybody?” I asked J.R.
A few minutes later I glanced at the gate monitor and noticed our departure time had been changed from 7:30 p.m. to 8:53 p.m. I was puzzled because 8:53 p.m. was our supposedly arrival time in Baton Rouge. The other passengers were concerned, too.
What had caused the delay? There was no storm. No fog. What’s going on? I walked over to the counter to find out.
“Sir, are we delayed? And why?” I asked.
“President Bush was in Phoenix and had just arrived in Maryland. All flights are delayed!” The flight attendant replied.
“Yes, I know! I just came from Phoenix!” I exclaimed, for I suddenly remembered the unusual sight I saw while in the shuttle on our way to the Phoenix Airport that morning.
The shuttle bus driver had announced, “Hey folks, if you’ve not seen Air Force One before, there it is on your left!”
We stretched our necks and surely there it was! The President’s jet! Its name: United States of America. The U.S. President was in Phoenix the day before for a fundraising campaign.
And when we arrived at our departure gate in Phoenix that morning, another passenger remarked that Air Force One had just left. From the huge glass window, we saw a convoy of black SUVs and a fire truck headed to the other side of the airport.
“The security people cannot take a chance in having planes take off or land when the President’s jet is around,” J.R. said.
It did not occur to me that every precautionary step had to be taken for the safety of the U.S. President.
Wow! The most important man in the whole world was able to delay the flights!
Then I thought of yet another very important Being. One more important than President Bush. “Jesus Christ,” the King of Kings of the whole Universe! Our Creator God Who one day will come, unannounced, with a convoy of countless angels. He will not just stop all the flights. He will stop every activity of man in this world. And when He does, there is no resuming of any activity, except for those who will go to His heavenly place with Him.
In the Middle of the Night
Reva Lachica Moore
Emely awakened at 2 a.m. with a sense that something was wrong. As she became aware of her surroundings, she felt everything in the house was fine. The feeling seemed to overwhelm her and she couldn’t go back to sleep. Was God trying to tell her something? Was it her mom far away in California ? She got out of bed, went to her computer and checked her e-mail. But there was nothing. Urgent news will not come in an e-mail anyway. Later that morning she called her mom to see how she was doing. There were no problems.
The next night at 2:00 a.m. there was the same awakening and the same strange feeling. She had recently retired; life was full of happiness and joy. But what was it? Could it be one of her married children or perhaps a grandchild? Because it was the middle of the night, she did not want to call anyone. Besides, if something was urgent, wouldn’t they call her?
Unable to sleep, she again returned to her computer to check her e-mail. There was nothing but the usual junk mail and a few notes from some old friends. After what seemed hours, sleep finally returned to her. Calls to her family later in the day indicated that everything was fine and mom should not worry so much.
In the third night, it was the same 2:00 a.m. awakening. This was not fun! Emely poured out her heart to the Lord, requesting His guidance and relief from the strange awakening. Again, she returned to her computer to check e-mail (hadn’t she done this before she went to bed?). This time there was a message from someone she did not know. Should she open it, risking the chance of getting a virus?
Of course she opened the e-mail. There it was: THE CALL. But hadn’t she retired? Wasn’t she too worked out to serve? Besides, the writer was someone she had never heard of; and he wanted her to become a principal, and not just of a small school as was her last school, but a K-12 school. And where was this place, in the middle of the Pacific, on some atoll she had never heard of? And, oh yes, it was a volunteer job with just a stipend. Who in their right mind would come out of retirement to do that?
Oh, and another thing, there was her husband Bill. They had only recently married. Bill had a good job and was not planning on retiring for three more years. Was she to leave him? In the middle of the night her mind was swarming with excuses and reasons to delete this crazy message. But why was she awakened for three consecutive nights? So she would not miss this e-mail from the other side of the world?
Strangely enough, she soon fell into a deep sleep and had the best night’s sleep she had in 72 hours. The morning’s explanations to Bill brought more questions and some serious discussions.
There was just no way that Bill could leave his job and what about the family debts? This was a crazy idea. But had he not told the Lord earlier this year that he would serve him any way he could? That is why he had taken the job of head deacon in the small church that really needed him.
Emely quietly reviewed the e-mail but gave no answer. Bill contemplated out loud and the family told them they would be crazy to even consider it. Wasn’t it time for them to kick back and enjoy life? THE CALL was ever present in their minds. After about 10 days, Bill had worked out almost everything. He could retire and start drawing his pension. He could be debt-free, and there was a buyer for his house. Emely’s mind was also made up. If Bill would come, she would do it.
Fourteen days after the e-mail was written, Keith Rodman thought that his inquiry was at a dead end. Perhaps the e-mail address was no longer valid. Who would give up retirement to be the principal on an atoll only half a mile wide and 30 miles long?
In the middle of the Guam night, Keith received the answer: “Yes, we are willing to come for two years of volunteer service.”
For just a stipend per month, leaving their family and friends, Emely and Bill took the call as volunteer teachers in Majuro Island .
Bill and Emely have since come back home from their 2-year volunteer missionary work in Majuro. The wonderful experiences and the many friends they have made there, they will forever cherish.
Emely awakened at 2 a.m. with a sense that something was wrong. As she became aware of her surroundings, she felt everything in the house was fine. The feeling seemed to overwhelm her and she couldn’t go back to sleep. Was God trying to tell her something? Was it her mom far away in California ? She got out of bed, went to her computer and checked her e-mail. But there was nothing. Urgent news will not come in an e-mail anyway. Later that morning she called her mom to see how she was doing. There were no problems.
The next night at 2:00 a.m. there was the same awakening and the same strange feeling. She had recently retired; life was full of happiness and joy. But what was it? Could it be one of her married children or perhaps a grandchild? Because it was the middle of the night, she did not want to call anyone. Besides, if something was urgent, wouldn’t they call her?
Unable to sleep, she again returned to her computer to check her e-mail. There was nothing but the usual junk mail and a few notes from some old friends. After what seemed hours, sleep finally returned to her. Calls to her family later in the day indicated that everything was fine and mom should not worry so much.
In the third night, it was the same 2:00 a.m. awakening. This was not fun! Emely poured out her heart to the Lord, requesting His guidance and relief from the strange awakening. Again, she returned to her computer to check e-mail (hadn’t she done this before she went to bed?). This time there was a message from someone she did not know. Should she open it, risking the chance of getting a virus?
Of course she opened the e-mail. There it was: THE CALL. But hadn’t she retired? Wasn’t she too worked out to serve? Besides, the writer was someone she had never heard of; and he wanted her to become a principal, and not just of a small school as was her last school, but a K-12 school. And where was this place, in the middle of the Pacific, on some atoll she had never heard of? And, oh yes, it was a volunteer job with just a stipend. Who in their right mind would come out of retirement to do that?
Oh, and another thing, there was her husband Bill. They had only recently married. Bill had a good job and was not planning on retiring for three more years. Was she to leave him? In the middle of the night her mind was swarming with excuses and reasons to delete this crazy message. But why was she awakened for three consecutive nights? So she would not miss this e-mail from the other side of the world?
Strangely enough, she soon fell into a deep sleep and had the best night’s sleep she had in 72 hours. The morning’s explanations to Bill brought more questions and some serious discussions.
There was just no way that Bill could leave his job and what about the family debts? This was a crazy idea. But had he not told the Lord earlier this year that he would serve him any way he could? That is why he had taken the job of head deacon in the small church that really needed him.
Emely quietly reviewed the e-mail but gave no answer. Bill contemplated out loud and the family told them they would be crazy to even consider it. Wasn’t it time for them to kick back and enjoy life? THE CALL was ever present in their minds. After about 10 days, Bill had worked out almost everything. He could retire and start drawing his pension. He could be debt-free, and there was a buyer for his house. Emely’s mind was also made up. If Bill would come, she would do it.
Fourteen days after the e-mail was written, Keith Rodman thought that his inquiry was at a dead end. Perhaps the e-mail address was no longer valid. Who would give up retirement to be the principal on an atoll only half a mile wide and 30 miles long?
In the middle of the Guam night, Keith received the answer: “Yes, we are willing to come for two years of volunteer service.”
For just a stipend per month, leaving their family and friends, Emely and Bill took the call as volunteer teachers in Majuro Island .
Bill and Emely have since come back home from their 2-year volunteer missionary work in Majuro. The wonderful experiences and the many friends they have made there, they will forever cherish.
The Room with a Rim View
Reva Lachica Moore
In our many travels, as we drive along country sides or crowded cities and I’d spot a certain type of house, I’d point to it and play a “Question and Answer” game with J.R. I would usually ask the questions.
“How’d you like to live there?”
“Nope!”
“How about there? How would you like to live there?”
“Nope!”
I’d wait a while and after an hour or so, I’d spot another house and my questioning would resume.
“How’d you like to live there?”
“Absolutely not! Who would live in a God-forsaken place like that?”
Then I’d chuckle. Glancing at J.R., I’d see his lips curve into a forced smile. Then I’d ask, “Didn’t you say you’d live with me wherever I choose to live on this earth?”
“But you don’t live there,” he answers. Then we’d both laugh.
I usually ask these questions while pointing to houses with varied sizes and looks. Most are small. Some shacks. Some with yards littered with junk like old cars. A few are exceptionally nice. Once in a while when I’d see a nice town, I’d ask the same question. Every once in a while J.R.’s answer would be: “Maybe.” But most often, “Nope!”
Last week while driving along the Mojave Desert, we saw a mansion-looking house on the side of a hill. I asked the same question and got the same answer—“Nope!”
I realized then that the main reason why J.R. doesn’t want to live in the houses I had pointed to is because the houses are isolated. They’re in the middle of a desert. Or on top of a mountain. On the side of a cliff. In the middle of a field. Alone. With barren or ugly surroundings. No neighbors in sight. And miles away from towns.
We both realized how blessed we are to have a comfortable home with a big yard, many trees, and around neighbors. When we see these isolated houses, we wonder how people could live in them. We also knew that even Christ, when He lived on this earth, didn’t live in a mansion. He lived the poor life of a carpenter.
Matthew 8:20 says… “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
And though there was no room in the inn for Jesus during His birth, because of God’s love for us, He wants us to live comfortably and in beautiful places.
During our recent trip to the Grand Canyon, we had planned to drive to the North Rim after a three-day stay in the South Rim. Two weeks before our trip, J.R. checked the Internet and made phone calls for three successive days to reserve a room at the North Rim’s Grand Canyon Lodge. Each day was a disappointment. He realized he had acted too late. A cabin in the Lodge had to be reserved 6 months to 2 years ahead of time. Upon seeing J.R.’s disappointment, I suggested that he make another phone call and say these words: “Would there be one in a million chances that you would have a room for me?”
While J.R. dialed, I breathed a prayer asking God to give us a room, for the other accommodations were an hour or so away.
“Really? You have a vacancy?” I heard J.R. ask, and then he nodded at me.
We didn’t have a hard time finding a hotel room in the South Rim of the Canyon. We stayed there for three days. The view was simply breathtaking!
From the South Rim, the drive to the North Rim took 4 hours. But the many miles of the scenic Vermillion Cliffs along the way awed us; we didn’t notice the time.
At the Grand Canyon Lodge, J.R. went straight to the counter to ask for our cabin. The receptionist asked how long ago did J.R. reserve the cabin and how did he get one with a “rim” view. When he answered, “Two weeks,” the receptionist said there must have been a cancellation. She told us to come back an hour later. The cabin wasn’t ready.
To pass the time we decided to view the Canyon. Many people sat on the spacious veranda taking in its awesome beauty. Others walked the narrow paths to overlooks with railings. Next to the Lodge was a beautiful cabin. I took a picture of it and said, “God, it would surely be nice to have a cabin like that.”
Back at the Lodge, the lady gave us our cabin key (#301). Surprisingly, it was the same cabin I took a picture of earlier. A porter brought in our luggage and asked, “Did you know that to get this cabin, you have to reserve it 3 years in advance? There are only two cabins with porches overlooking the North Rim.”
We were stunned but thankful. Folks who passed by our cabin commented that indeed we had the best view.
And so I asked J.R. the same question.
“How’d you like to live here?”
“Absolutely yes! Who wouldn’t like to have a backyard like that?”
As we sat on rocking chairs watching the sunset from our cabin porch, we thanked God for His amazing handiwork—a creation, which no man can ever reproduce. One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long with an average of 10 miles in width and an average of 1 mile in depth. Its magnitude and unsurpassed beauty tells of a very powerful and loving God.
In our many travels, as we drive along country sides or crowded cities and I’d spot a certain type of house, I’d point to it and play a “Question and Answer” game with J.R. I would usually ask the questions.
“How’d you like to live there?”
“Nope!”
“How about there? How would you like to live there?”
“Nope!”
I’d wait a while and after an hour or so, I’d spot another house and my questioning would resume.
“How’d you like to live there?”
“Absolutely not! Who would live in a God-forsaken place like that?”
Then I’d chuckle. Glancing at J.R., I’d see his lips curve into a forced smile. Then I’d ask, “Didn’t you say you’d live with me wherever I choose to live on this earth?”
“But you don’t live there,” he answers. Then we’d both laugh.
I usually ask these questions while pointing to houses with varied sizes and looks. Most are small. Some shacks. Some with yards littered with junk like old cars. A few are exceptionally nice. Once in a while when I’d see a nice town, I’d ask the same question. Every once in a while J.R.’s answer would be: “Maybe.” But most often, “Nope!”
Last week while driving along the Mojave Desert, we saw a mansion-looking house on the side of a hill. I asked the same question and got the same answer—“Nope!”
I realized then that the main reason why J.R. doesn’t want to live in the houses I had pointed to is because the houses are isolated. They’re in the middle of a desert. Or on top of a mountain. On the side of a cliff. In the middle of a field. Alone. With barren or ugly surroundings. No neighbors in sight. And miles away from towns.
We both realized how blessed we are to have a comfortable home with a big yard, many trees, and around neighbors. When we see these isolated houses, we wonder how people could live in them. We also knew that even Christ, when He lived on this earth, didn’t live in a mansion. He lived the poor life of a carpenter.
Matthew 8:20 says… “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
And though there was no room in the inn for Jesus during His birth, because of God’s love for us, He wants us to live comfortably and in beautiful places.
During our recent trip to the Grand Canyon, we had planned to drive to the North Rim after a three-day stay in the South Rim. Two weeks before our trip, J.R. checked the Internet and made phone calls for three successive days to reserve a room at the North Rim’s Grand Canyon Lodge. Each day was a disappointment. He realized he had acted too late. A cabin in the Lodge had to be reserved 6 months to 2 years ahead of time. Upon seeing J.R.’s disappointment, I suggested that he make another phone call and say these words: “Would there be one in a million chances that you would have a room for me?”
While J.R. dialed, I breathed a prayer asking God to give us a room, for the other accommodations were an hour or so away.
“Really? You have a vacancy?” I heard J.R. ask, and then he nodded at me.
We didn’t have a hard time finding a hotel room in the South Rim of the Canyon. We stayed there for three days. The view was simply breathtaking!
From the South Rim, the drive to the North Rim took 4 hours. But the many miles of the scenic Vermillion Cliffs along the way awed us; we didn’t notice the time.
At the Grand Canyon Lodge, J.R. went straight to the counter to ask for our cabin. The receptionist asked how long ago did J.R. reserve the cabin and how did he get one with a “rim” view. When he answered, “Two weeks,” the receptionist said there must have been a cancellation. She told us to come back an hour later. The cabin wasn’t ready.
To pass the time we decided to view the Canyon. Many people sat on the spacious veranda taking in its awesome beauty. Others walked the narrow paths to overlooks with railings. Next to the Lodge was a beautiful cabin. I took a picture of it and said, “God, it would surely be nice to have a cabin like that.”
Back at the Lodge, the lady gave us our cabin key (#301). Surprisingly, it was the same cabin I took a picture of earlier. A porter brought in our luggage and asked, “Did you know that to get this cabin, you have to reserve it 3 years in advance? There are only two cabins with porches overlooking the North Rim.”
We were stunned but thankful. Folks who passed by our cabin commented that indeed we had the best view.
And so I asked J.R. the same question.
“How’d you like to live here?”
“Absolutely yes! Who wouldn’t like to have a backyard like that?”
As we sat on rocking chairs watching the sunset from our cabin porch, we thanked God for His amazing handiwork—a creation, which no man can ever reproduce. One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long with an average of 10 miles in width and an average of 1 mile in depth. Its magnitude and unsurpassed beauty tells of a very powerful and loving God.
Leaving An Indelible Mark
Reva Lachica Wallace
(This Sharing Time was written back in 2002 when I was a widow).
With the start of a New Year, I couldn't help but reflect back on my life. Have I been the best example of a friend, daughter, mother, or even a stranger? I have to admit I never even tried nor thought of being one. Two weeks ago, my son Adam lamented on the absence of Christmas decorations in our home. Looking for an excuse, I was quick to say, "I just don't have the incentive anymore." "But Mom, Cliff and I are still here with you," the boy retorted. He was right. For the past four Christmases after my husband's death, not a single Christmas decoration had left its place in the closet. My reason: during the first two years, even Adam, himself, said, "With daddy gone, there's no use to have a Christmas tree." So I thought it right to continue; but with Adam's complaints, I realized I'd been leaving an unhappy mark in their memories the past few Christmases. Everyday, everywhere, we leave indelible marks in places and in people's hearts. Two years ago my son Cliff, a medical technologist, came home from his first day of work at the Our Lady of the Lake Hospital here in Baton Rouge. He said that many people remembered him when he was just a toddler. I used to take him to the laboratory. "Are you Reva's son? How is she?" asked those who remembered me when I worked there some twenty years ago. Cliff said that someone brought pictures of me the following day to show him. They talked about how a good worker I was. I haven't been back to that old lab since I left, and probably would notremember even a face. How do these people remember me? I worked there for only 4 months (notice NOT years). My son said, "Mom, you told me once a long time ago that you drew pictures of hematology cells and posted them in front of the microscopes. Do you know those pictures are still there and we're still using them?" I was very surprised. In the four months that I worked in that lab, I had scrubbed every inch of space to perfection and meticulously drawn those pictures. And 20 years later, they're still being used? Every once in a while, I'd run into folks who'd remind me about the times I had prayed with them, or helped in some kind of way. I received these e-mails not too long ago: "You are always so kind and generous. I will never forget the time when I went to visit you nearly 10 years ago. I don't know if you remember, but you took me shopping and told me to pick anything I wanted. Never in my life had anyone told me or offered anything like it. I felt like my Christmas came all at once. If only you know how I feel. That memory will always be with me for the rest of my life. Thanks again!" ~ Joy from Australia"Ma'am, I just want to tell you that you have forever changed my life for the better." ~ Pastor Rudny from the Philippines"Ma'am, You don't know me but someone gave me a copy of your letter about Jesus. For someone like you who now lives in America, you still have the humbleness and love to think of us people here in the Philippines." ~ Evelyn"Mom Reva, I hope that I'll be able to pay back your sacrifice to send me to college. If not to you, maybe to others." ~ adopted son - Reuben Villanueva ( Adventist University of the Philippines)But I wish I could say that the indelible marks I've left were all pleasant. Unfortunately, not all. I have a friend who will probably never forgive me for a tactless remark that I made, telling him that a certain person is a better pianist than he. In my hopes to spark interest in him to like my girlfriend pianist, I jokingly said those words. But instead, my not-well-thought out words were like daggers piercing his heart. And I've asked for forgiveness many times. This friend still refuses to talk with me. Sometimes in our frustrations, we also say the most horrible things, especially to our loved ones. Yet, we are on our best behavior with others. Hurting words once said cannot be taken back. It can gnaw on one's person forever. I remember some very hurting words said to me when I was 8 years old. A neighbor who was visiting, made a remark to my mother, saying that of her seven daughters (pointing at me) I was the ugliest. Those hurting words never left me and I carried them through the years. Because of those words, my self-esteem was very low for a long long time. How cruel could this neighbor be? Forty years later I ran into the same neighbor while in California. She couldn't recognize me of course. I wished to have told her how much she had hurt me. And for next year, I promised my sons that we'll have festive Christmas decorations all over the house again. This New Year, may we make it our goal to leave beautiful and loving indelible marks in people's hearts. May we not become too busy to say loving words, and to fill the needs, not only of our loved ones, but also of others. The Lord bless.
(This Sharing Time was written back in 2002 when I was a widow).
With the start of a New Year, I couldn't help but reflect back on my life. Have I been the best example of a friend, daughter, mother, or even a stranger? I have to admit I never even tried nor thought of being one. Two weeks ago, my son Adam lamented on the absence of Christmas decorations in our home. Looking for an excuse, I was quick to say, "I just don't have the incentive anymore." "But Mom, Cliff and I are still here with you," the boy retorted. He was right. For the past four Christmases after my husband's death, not a single Christmas decoration had left its place in the closet. My reason: during the first two years, even Adam, himself, said, "With daddy gone, there's no use to have a Christmas tree." So I thought it right to continue; but with Adam's complaints, I realized I'd been leaving an unhappy mark in their memories the past few Christmases. Everyday, everywhere, we leave indelible marks in places and in people's hearts. Two years ago my son Cliff, a medical technologist, came home from his first day of work at the Our Lady of the Lake Hospital here in Baton Rouge. He said that many people remembered him when he was just a toddler. I used to take him to the laboratory. "Are you Reva's son? How is she?" asked those who remembered me when I worked there some twenty years ago. Cliff said that someone brought pictures of me the following day to show him. They talked about how a good worker I was. I haven't been back to that old lab since I left, and probably would notremember even a face. How do these people remember me? I worked there for only 4 months (notice NOT years). My son said, "Mom, you told me once a long time ago that you drew pictures of hematology cells and posted them in front of the microscopes. Do you know those pictures are still there and we're still using them?" I was very surprised. In the four months that I worked in that lab, I had scrubbed every inch of space to perfection and meticulously drawn those pictures. And 20 years later, they're still being used? Every once in a while, I'd run into folks who'd remind me about the times I had prayed with them, or helped in some kind of way. I received these e-mails not too long ago: "You are always so kind and generous. I will never forget the time when I went to visit you nearly 10 years ago. I don't know if you remember, but you took me shopping and told me to pick anything I wanted. Never in my life had anyone told me or offered anything like it. I felt like my Christmas came all at once. If only you know how I feel. That memory will always be with me for the rest of my life. Thanks again!" ~ Joy from Australia"Ma'am, I just want to tell you that you have forever changed my life for the better." ~ Pastor Rudny from the Philippines"Ma'am, You don't know me but someone gave me a copy of your letter about Jesus. For someone like you who now lives in America, you still have the humbleness and love to think of us people here in the Philippines." ~ Evelyn"Mom Reva, I hope that I'll be able to pay back your sacrifice to send me to college. If not to you, maybe to others." ~ adopted son - Reuben Villanueva ( Adventist University of the Philippines)But I wish I could say that the indelible marks I've left were all pleasant. Unfortunately, not all. I have a friend who will probably never forgive me for a tactless remark that I made, telling him that a certain person is a better pianist than he. In my hopes to spark interest in him to like my girlfriend pianist, I jokingly said those words. But instead, my not-well-thought out words were like daggers piercing his heart. And I've asked for forgiveness many times. This friend still refuses to talk with me. Sometimes in our frustrations, we also say the most horrible things, especially to our loved ones. Yet, we are on our best behavior with others. Hurting words once said cannot be taken back. It can gnaw on one's person forever. I remember some very hurting words said to me when I was 8 years old. A neighbor who was visiting, made a remark to my mother, saying that of her seven daughters (pointing at me) I was the ugliest. Those hurting words never left me and I carried them through the years. Because of those words, my self-esteem was very low for a long long time. How cruel could this neighbor be? Forty years later I ran into the same neighbor while in California. She couldn't recognize me of course. I wished to have told her how much she had hurt me. And for next year, I promised my sons that we'll have festive Christmas decorations all over the house again. This New Year, may we make it our goal to leave beautiful and loving indelible marks in people's hearts. May we not become too busy to say loving words, and to fill the needs, not only of our loved ones, but also of others. The Lord bless.
A Piece of Roll on Her Neck
Reva Lachica Moore
Have you ever gone to bed hungry? I have. But not because there was no food in the house. I’ve gone to bed hungry because I was on a “crash” diet. And I felt pretty miserable.
According to world statistics, 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty today. And tonight, 800 million people will go to bed hungry. Real hunger is a reality for millions of people in the world – even here in this blessed country of America . You’re probably asking - Why in America when there’s abundance of food? And who in America goes to bed hungry?
The hungry person in America is the child who goes to school each day having gone to bed hungry because there was no food in the house. He may be the child of a single parent whose income isn’t enough to pay for house rent, transportation and food.
The hungry person may be a child whose parents are working but only make minimum wage. Money is spent on living expenses and very little on food.
The hungry is an elderly on fixed income who often spends his money on expensive medications and try to live on less food.
For families in unexpected situations such as illness, death, or other tragedies that consume household income, food is often sacrificed.
I only think about this problem when I receive letters from working students or very poor folks in the Philippines who said they have no money for food.
Not long ago I saw on CNN a most horrible news; I was stunned and felt horrible. Some of Haiti ’s poorest people in the worst slums who can’t afford even a plate of rice are using inconceivable ways to fill their bellies. They eat cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau. Dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening have become their regular meal – a remedy for hunger pangs.
But one day, a sobering thought came to me upon seeing something quite unusual. Our elderly friend, Frances , 81, was a guest in our home for several weeks. At mealtime, Frances would eat every piece of food on her plate. Any leftover, she’d carefully put in containers and stored in the refrigerator. The next morning, she’d warm the leftovers for her breakfast. How nice! We’re not throwing away food. I said to myself.
As I cleared the table after supper one evening, I noticed Frances wrap her leftover roll in a napkin. I didn’t say anything. I thought she was going to throw it away later. During supper the next evening, I noticed Frances wrap her leftover roll again so I said, “Here, let me throw that away for you.”
“Oh no,” she said, “this is for my snack later.”
“But why a piece of roll? Here I have cake and ice cream for desert. And you are welcome to all the goodies and drinks that I left on the dresser in your room.” I usually have all kinds of snacks and drinks placed in our two guest bedrooms.
That evening Frances told me her story.
“Reva, I have suffered so much hunger as a child during the depression years that even today I cannot waste food. Let me tell you, when things started to get better during those years, my father would wrap a roll and place it on my neck after tucking me to bed at night. The roll or bread is to remind me that I will never get hungry again.”
Stunned for what I had heard, I asked, “But why on your neck?”
“So I could feel it and know that I have food when I get hungry.”
So even today, Frances still wraps a roll or a piece of bread and places it by the nightstand at bedtime and in the middle of the night, she eats her roll.
Can you imagine how it would be like if something like the Great Depression happens again? God forbid that it does because it would be a very, very horrible thing.
But it’s easy to see that happening. During Huricanes Katrina and Rita back in the summer of 2006, the shelves of grocery stores in my town were wiped out by customers in such a short time; we couldn’t find a loaf of bread, bottled water, eggs, etc. And even everyday necessities such as batteries, ice, toilet paper were gone. The line of people who wanted to purchase things such as generators was unreal. J.R. stood on line for 2 days only to be told there weren’t enough to sell and we never got one.
Not trying to be foreboding, if indeed there comes a time when food would become scarce, what would you do? I remember seeing on CNN during the Y2K hype when many folks stored food and water for a year.
If indeed extreme situations should happen, the Holy Scriptures say not to worry. During the Bible times, God took care of His people like Elijah who was fed by ravens with bread and meat day after day. I have also read about a prisoner during World War I who was fed by a cat who brought a piece of bread every morning to the prisoner’s cell window. I’ve also written the story of my friends – The Singing Baterzal Family – who didn’t have money to buy food but the mother prayed, and rats brought the family dried fish, sugar and bread three mornings in a row. The rats dragged the neighbors’ food to the Baterzal’s apartment.
Just like Frances’ father who assured her when she was a child that she will never be hungry again, our Heavenly Father likewise has assured us in Isaiah 33:15, 16: Those who are honest and fair, who refuse to profit by fraud, who stay far away from bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong—these are the ones who will dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress. Food will be supplied to them, and they will have water in abundance.
Have you ever gone to bed hungry? I have. But not because there was no food in the house. I’ve gone to bed hungry because I was on a “crash” diet. And I felt pretty miserable.
According to world statistics, 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty today. And tonight, 800 million people will go to bed hungry. Real hunger is a reality for millions of people in the world – even here in this blessed country of America . You’re probably asking - Why in America when there’s abundance of food? And who in America goes to bed hungry?
The hungry person in America is the child who goes to school each day having gone to bed hungry because there was no food in the house. He may be the child of a single parent whose income isn’t enough to pay for house rent, transportation and food.
The hungry person may be a child whose parents are working but only make minimum wage. Money is spent on living expenses and very little on food.
The hungry is an elderly on fixed income who often spends his money on expensive medications and try to live on less food.
For families in unexpected situations such as illness, death, or other tragedies that consume household income, food is often sacrificed.
I only think about this problem when I receive letters from working students or very poor folks in the Philippines who said they have no money for food.
Not long ago I saw on CNN a most horrible news; I was stunned and felt horrible. Some of Haiti ’s poorest people in the worst slums who can’t afford even a plate of rice are using inconceivable ways to fill their bellies. They eat cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau. Dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening have become their regular meal – a remedy for hunger pangs.
But one day, a sobering thought came to me upon seeing something quite unusual. Our elderly friend, Frances , 81, was a guest in our home for several weeks. At mealtime, Frances would eat every piece of food on her plate. Any leftover, she’d carefully put in containers and stored in the refrigerator. The next morning, she’d warm the leftovers for her breakfast. How nice! We’re not throwing away food. I said to myself.
As I cleared the table after supper one evening, I noticed Frances wrap her leftover roll in a napkin. I didn’t say anything. I thought she was going to throw it away later. During supper the next evening, I noticed Frances wrap her leftover roll again so I said, “Here, let me throw that away for you.”
“Oh no,” she said, “this is for my snack later.”
“But why a piece of roll? Here I have cake and ice cream for desert. And you are welcome to all the goodies and drinks that I left on the dresser in your room.” I usually have all kinds of snacks and drinks placed in our two guest bedrooms.
That evening Frances told me her story.
“Reva, I have suffered so much hunger as a child during the depression years that even today I cannot waste food. Let me tell you, when things started to get better during those years, my father would wrap a roll and place it on my neck after tucking me to bed at night. The roll or bread is to remind me that I will never get hungry again.”
Stunned for what I had heard, I asked, “But why on your neck?”
“So I could feel it and know that I have food when I get hungry.”
So even today, Frances still wraps a roll or a piece of bread and places it by the nightstand at bedtime and in the middle of the night, she eats her roll.
Can you imagine how it would be like if something like the Great Depression happens again? God forbid that it does because it would be a very, very horrible thing.
But it’s easy to see that happening. During Huricanes Katrina and Rita back in the summer of 2006, the shelves of grocery stores in my town were wiped out by customers in such a short time; we couldn’t find a loaf of bread, bottled water, eggs, etc. And even everyday necessities such as batteries, ice, toilet paper were gone. The line of people who wanted to purchase things such as generators was unreal. J.R. stood on line for 2 days only to be told there weren’t enough to sell and we never got one.
Not trying to be foreboding, if indeed there comes a time when food would become scarce, what would you do? I remember seeing on CNN during the Y2K hype when many folks stored food and water for a year.
If indeed extreme situations should happen, the Holy Scriptures say not to worry. During the Bible times, God took care of His people like Elijah who was fed by ravens with bread and meat day after day. I have also read about a prisoner during World War I who was fed by a cat who brought a piece of bread every morning to the prisoner’s cell window. I’ve also written the story of my friends – The Singing Baterzal Family – who didn’t have money to buy food but the mother prayed, and rats brought the family dried fish, sugar and bread three mornings in a row. The rats dragged the neighbors’ food to the Baterzal’s apartment.
Just like Frances’ father who assured her when she was a child that she will never be hungry again, our Heavenly Father likewise has assured us in Isaiah 33:15, 16: Those who are honest and fair, who refuse to profit by fraud, who stay far away from bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong—these are the ones who will dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress. Food will be supplied to them, and they will have water in abundance.
It Started Out as a Rumor
Reva Lachica Moore
It first started out as a rumor five years ago. My co-workers who are fishing and hunting enthusiasts and who also love sports and the great outdoors were excitedly talking about the coming of this giant store called Bass Pro. And since it was getting built outside our subdivision, they asked me what I thought about it.
“The traffic around Range Avenue will be unreal,” a co-worker said. “But I’m happy it’s being built there; I don’t have to drive to Houston anymore.”
“I cannot see it happening,” I told them. “And if it does, it wouldn’t affect me in anyway. There’s nothing going on outside our subdivision because the people would fight every business that tries to come in.”
Because of my disbelief, I could sense them snickering behind my back.
A few months later, residents of my subdivision started talking about the giant store. They didn’t want any big business coming close to our homes, so they voted against it. Three years passed and there was not a single sign of the store’s coming. The street going to our subdivision remained quiet.
Everything seemed tranquil in our little bedroom community when suddenly, hotels and motels started coming up like giant mushrooms popping up almost overnight. Many things were happening and a huge sign – BASS PRO Coming Soon - showed on the site near the interstate. Again, the people fought to stop the building of the store. Then things were quiet again. “It will never happen!” many people said.
On the spring of 2006, the newspaper finally reported the forthcoming of the huge store as big as three and a half football fields. And this time, nobody could stop it. People started talking again.
The traffic of I-12 has increased tremendously after Hurricane Katrina and we worried what will happen when the new store opens.
When the summer of 2006 came, a couple of contractor trailers stood on the construction site and bulldozers started clearing the land. But as soon as the work started, it suddenly stopped again due to more court hearings. A year passed with no signs of continued progress. By this time, the jobsite seemed completely abandoned.
J.R. and I went to the Philippines on the spring of 2007. When we got back home, the site of the proposed giant store seemed neglected. Tall grass had covered the lot. An abandoned trailer stood on the same spot where it first was.
But one day, when we least expected, a convoy of vehicles arrived and parked on the site. A week later, heavy machinery was grading the lot and all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. In two weeks’ time, the frame of the giant store could be seen from the highway. Everyday, the building was getting taller and bigger. Rain or shine, people were working, although we couldn’t see them since we couldn’t get close to it.
It didn’t take long before we could see the massive structure standing straight and tall. And the small pond, which was originally there, had increased in size and changed in shape, yet we never saw anyone working on it.
Four months later, the store looked finished with new galvanized roof and walls on time for the scheduled grand opening. But as days passed, the building started to look different – old-looking. The roof and walls were being covered with “old barn materials” to make it have the rustic look – typical for Southern Louisiana . The newspaper said it’s the first store of its kind with a different look. Then small trees were sprouting in places and parking lots were being paved. A few days before the grand opening, a new traffic light was installed at the entrance street.
Finally, it was grand opening day. Celebrities came to help with the celebration and thousands of people were waiting in their cars as long as 10 hours before the 6:00 p.m. opening time on a Wednesday night. Dozens of police cars with their roving lights were parked in strategic places with cops helping with the traffic.
According to the paper, the waiting people chanted, “Let us in! Let us in!” hours before the doors opened. Some 16,000 people walked into the store’s turnstiles that night. And over 65,000 people came to see the giant store in 3 days.
Since opening night until today, over a month later, the lanes going to our subdivision are jammed with traffic and police cars are still stationed in places; we had to find alternate ways to go to our house.
And new stores and restaurants are popping everywhere. We now have to go to 3 traffic lights when there used to be none before we could enter the interstate.
It was rumored two thousand years ago that a big event is going to happen on this planet earth. Jesus Christ will come again to redeem His people and take them to heaven to live with Him. We have seen signs of His coming and have wondered why it has not happened yet. Many are skeptical whether this event will really happen, so they do not prepare for it. But it will happen when we least expect it! Are you ready for His coming because it will be here before you know it! I’m looking forward to be one of the multitudes who would excitedly say, “Let us in! Let us in!” into the doors of heaven.
It first started out as a rumor five years ago. My co-workers who are fishing and hunting enthusiasts and who also love sports and the great outdoors were excitedly talking about the coming of this giant store called Bass Pro. And since it was getting built outside our subdivision, they asked me what I thought about it.
“The traffic around Range Avenue will be unreal,” a co-worker said. “But I’m happy it’s being built there; I don’t have to drive to Houston anymore.”
“I cannot see it happening,” I told them. “And if it does, it wouldn’t affect me in anyway. There’s nothing going on outside our subdivision because the people would fight every business that tries to come in.”
Because of my disbelief, I could sense them snickering behind my back.
A few months later, residents of my subdivision started talking about the giant store. They didn’t want any big business coming close to our homes, so they voted against it. Three years passed and there was not a single sign of the store’s coming. The street going to our subdivision remained quiet.
Everything seemed tranquil in our little bedroom community when suddenly, hotels and motels started coming up like giant mushrooms popping up almost overnight. Many things were happening and a huge sign – BASS PRO Coming Soon - showed on the site near the interstate. Again, the people fought to stop the building of the store. Then things were quiet again. “It will never happen!” many people said.
On the spring of 2006, the newspaper finally reported the forthcoming of the huge store as big as three and a half football fields. And this time, nobody could stop it. People started talking again.
The traffic of I-12 has increased tremendously after Hurricane Katrina and we worried what will happen when the new store opens.
When the summer of 2006 came, a couple of contractor trailers stood on the construction site and bulldozers started clearing the land. But as soon as the work started, it suddenly stopped again due to more court hearings. A year passed with no signs of continued progress. By this time, the jobsite seemed completely abandoned.
J.R. and I went to the Philippines on the spring of 2007. When we got back home, the site of the proposed giant store seemed neglected. Tall grass had covered the lot. An abandoned trailer stood on the same spot where it first was.
But one day, when we least expected, a convoy of vehicles arrived and parked on the site. A week later, heavy machinery was grading the lot and all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. In two weeks’ time, the frame of the giant store could be seen from the highway. Everyday, the building was getting taller and bigger. Rain or shine, people were working, although we couldn’t see them since we couldn’t get close to it.
It didn’t take long before we could see the massive structure standing straight and tall. And the small pond, which was originally there, had increased in size and changed in shape, yet we never saw anyone working on it.
Four months later, the store looked finished with new galvanized roof and walls on time for the scheduled grand opening. But as days passed, the building started to look different – old-looking. The roof and walls were being covered with “old barn materials” to make it have the rustic look – typical for Southern Louisiana . The newspaper said it’s the first store of its kind with a different look. Then small trees were sprouting in places and parking lots were being paved. A few days before the grand opening, a new traffic light was installed at the entrance street.
Finally, it was grand opening day. Celebrities came to help with the celebration and thousands of people were waiting in their cars as long as 10 hours before the 6:00 p.m. opening time on a Wednesday night. Dozens of police cars with their roving lights were parked in strategic places with cops helping with the traffic.
According to the paper, the waiting people chanted, “Let us in! Let us in!” hours before the doors opened. Some 16,000 people walked into the store’s turnstiles that night. And over 65,000 people came to see the giant store in 3 days.
Since opening night until today, over a month later, the lanes going to our subdivision are jammed with traffic and police cars are still stationed in places; we had to find alternate ways to go to our house.
And new stores and restaurants are popping everywhere. We now have to go to 3 traffic lights when there used to be none before we could enter the interstate.
It was rumored two thousand years ago that a big event is going to happen on this planet earth. Jesus Christ will come again to redeem His people and take them to heaven to live with Him. We have seen signs of His coming and have wondered why it has not happened yet. Many are skeptical whether this event will really happen, so they do not prepare for it. But it will happen when we least expect it! Are you ready for His coming because it will be here before you know it! I’m looking forward to be one of the multitudes who would excitedly say, “Let us in! Let us in!” into the doors of heaven.
THIS TIME THERE WAS NO NOAH
Reva Lachica Moore
In our local newspaper an article, This time there was no Noah, caught my eye. Someone wrote about being part of the crew that did a survey of the New Orleans State Buildings months after the levees broke and flooded the city.
The person wrote:
“As we walked the halls, all of us were in awe and despair at the many items left by the fleeing citizens who worked in the building. Personalized cups half-full of coffee with lipstick prints; vases with dead flowers, and calendars with that dreadful day still hanging on the sides of the cubicles.
“How quickly they must have been forced to leave to abandon pictures of loved ones! One calendar was of a religious nature with quotes from the Bible for every month, and this one in particular was ironic, to say the least. It had a picture of Noah’s ark for the month of August. I can’t tell you the size of the chill bumps I got from seeing that. I had to walk away so no one would see my eyes filling up.
“I know most of those people will be in heaven for they’ve already been through hell.”
The writer was right. There was no Noah to warn the people at that time. Or even if there was a “real” Noah, would the people have believed him?
In Genesis 6: 5-7 it says: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence, and so God said to Noah that He will destroy man with the earth. He asked Noah to build an ark of gopherwood and gave him the dimensions. It was a huge ship that God wanted built.
Try to imagine an old man and his family building a huge boat in your subdivision because God asked him to do so. At first the neighbors probably didn’t take much notice, but as time went by, and one by one the huge wooden ribs of the ship were secured in place, and it became clear that it was a ship and not a shed that he was building, they began to make fun of him. How they laughed, for they could see no reason for building such a thing! I’m sure he was the talk of town.
Noah tried to explain and warn the people about the Flood that was coming. And that God told him to build a place of refuge for those who wanted to be saved. But it was no use. The more he warned the people, the more they mocked him. What a sad thing.
Two years ago, before the approaching Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans , many modern Noahs using Doppler radar and the latest technology, warned the people through television, the Internet, and the radio. It was a voluntary evacuation, and many left for higher grounds. At the height of the mass exodus, it took half a day to reach Baton Rouge from New Orleans what would normally take an hour. But many did not heed the warnings and stayed in their homes.
The hurricane came with utter fury. Those who were left behind compared the 135 mile per hour wind to that of a succession of explosions. After the wind died down, people heaved sighs of relief, for they had “dodged the bullet,” as what the Louisiana governor said, only to be surprised hours later by rising water.
The storm surge breached the city's levees at several points, leaving 80 percent of the city submerged, tens of thousands of victims clinging to rooftops, and hundreds of thousands scattered to shelters around the country. The modern Noahs failed to warn the people about the levees breaking.
In the end, there were over 1800 people who died during the two hurricanes that deluged New Orleans and vicinity.
In the past 3 months, town after town in the Midwestern states had been flooded in spite of the massive sandbagging efforts of the people. Nothing seemed to contain such violent force of nature. And as I write this, the Pin Oak levee just broke in Winfield , MO.
God has promised not to destroy all of the earth again by flood, but still, floods will come as well as other natural calamities such as: drought, earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes. Jesus Christ will come again and before His coming, all of these calamities will come and even more in greater successions and magnitude.
We are living when there is so much wickedness on this earth again. And God is indeed grieved and sorrowful for creating man. Jesus will come, just like in the days of Noah, when people are busy, unaware of the impending event and He will take to heaven with Him those who have accepted Him as their Savior. Are you ready?
Matthew 24: 37-39 says: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
In our local newspaper an article, This time there was no Noah, caught my eye. Someone wrote about being part of the crew that did a survey of the New Orleans State Buildings months after the levees broke and flooded the city.
The person wrote:
“As we walked the halls, all of us were in awe and despair at the many items left by the fleeing citizens who worked in the building. Personalized cups half-full of coffee with lipstick prints; vases with dead flowers, and calendars with that dreadful day still hanging on the sides of the cubicles.
“How quickly they must have been forced to leave to abandon pictures of loved ones! One calendar was of a religious nature with quotes from the Bible for every month, and this one in particular was ironic, to say the least. It had a picture of Noah’s ark for the month of August. I can’t tell you the size of the chill bumps I got from seeing that. I had to walk away so no one would see my eyes filling up.
“I know most of those people will be in heaven for they’ve already been through hell.”
The writer was right. There was no Noah to warn the people at that time. Or even if there was a “real” Noah, would the people have believed him?
In Genesis 6: 5-7 it says: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence, and so God said to Noah that He will destroy man with the earth. He asked Noah to build an ark of gopherwood and gave him the dimensions. It was a huge ship that God wanted built.
Try to imagine an old man and his family building a huge boat in your subdivision because God asked him to do so. At first the neighbors probably didn’t take much notice, but as time went by, and one by one the huge wooden ribs of the ship were secured in place, and it became clear that it was a ship and not a shed that he was building, they began to make fun of him. How they laughed, for they could see no reason for building such a thing! I’m sure he was the talk of town.
Noah tried to explain and warn the people about the Flood that was coming. And that God told him to build a place of refuge for those who wanted to be saved. But it was no use. The more he warned the people, the more they mocked him. What a sad thing.
Two years ago, before the approaching Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans , many modern Noahs using Doppler radar and the latest technology, warned the people through television, the Internet, and the radio. It was a voluntary evacuation, and many left for higher grounds. At the height of the mass exodus, it took half a day to reach Baton Rouge from New Orleans what would normally take an hour. But many did not heed the warnings and stayed in their homes.
The hurricane came with utter fury. Those who were left behind compared the 135 mile per hour wind to that of a succession of explosions. After the wind died down, people heaved sighs of relief, for they had “dodged the bullet,” as what the Louisiana governor said, only to be surprised hours later by rising water.
The storm surge breached the city's levees at several points, leaving 80 percent of the city submerged, tens of thousands of victims clinging to rooftops, and hundreds of thousands scattered to shelters around the country. The modern Noahs failed to warn the people about the levees breaking.
In the end, there were over 1800 people who died during the two hurricanes that deluged New Orleans and vicinity.
In the past 3 months, town after town in the Midwestern states had been flooded in spite of the massive sandbagging efforts of the people. Nothing seemed to contain such violent force of nature. And as I write this, the Pin Oak levee just broke in Winfield , MO.
God has promised not to destroy all of the earth again by flood, but still, floods will come as well as other natural calamities such as: drought, earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes. Jesus Christ will come again and before His coming, all of these calamities will come and even more in greater successions and magnitude.
We are living when there is so much wickedness on this earth again. And God is indeed grieved and sorrowful for creating man. Jesus will come, just like in the days of Noah, when people are busy, unaware of the impending event and He will take to heaven with Him those who have accepted Him as their Savior. Are you ready?
Matthew 24: 37-39 says: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)